Response: All governments at the Bali Climate Change Conference agreed to launch a far reaching negotiation process to reach an agreement to successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which is going to expire by the end of 2012. Given that many governments at the Montreal Climate Change Conference two years ago were even barely prepared to open an informal dialogue on future climate actions, this move is a significan... more

Response: It isn’t easy to stomach this possibility, but the world’s governments appear to be failing, for the second time, to take serious action on climate change. Like the UNFCCC before it, the Bali agreement consists in some high-minded talk meant as scaffolding for future treaties. The UNFCCC was the scaffolding for Kyoto, and although it contained some promise, the eventual deal struck in Kyoto was no... more

Response: The climate summit in Bali quickly descended from great hope to deep disappointment, and finally settled into a haze of compromise and confusion. It has been simultaneously hailed as a historic success and derided as a terrible failure. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between.

For much of the summit, the U.S. played a wrecking game, and only at the last minute did it cave in to int... more

Response: In the short-term, less than is required. It does pave the way for agreement on more far-reaching greenhouse gas emissions reductions by industrialized nations in Denmark in 2009, but whether these new targets will be legally-binding remains to be seen.

The much-touted road map that Bali was supposed to deliver is still littered with obstacles that only time, and elections, are likely to erase... more