The final scene

“Although we are in Bali I don’t believe that anyone has seen the beach,” said Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia’s environment minister and chairman of the UN climate talks in Bali in the closing stages of the conference on Saturday. That is about to change. Long before the final press briefing was over the conference centre was [...]

Bali road map launched

The deal is in the bag! Ministers in Bali have approved the launch of formal negotations on a post-2012 international climate agreement. They also agreed a 2009 end date and a work plan for the next two years. The text is identical to the draft tabled this morning with small changes to the wording of emission [...]

Emotions runs high, stalled talks resume

  UN climate chief Yvo de Boer has just walked out of a plenary meeting of ministers in Bali in tears. The secretariat was asked by China why the country had to make two points of order today because meetings were scheduled simultaneously, making attendance at both impossible. Mr de Boer began his reponse several times, each time having to [...]

First results

  It’s just after 9:30am. Negotiators in Bali have managed to secure provisional agreement on a “roadmap” to a post-2012 international climate agreement. At first glance, the document appears to be more a victory for the US and its supporters Japan, Canada and Australia than for the EU. But initial reactions are divided. What no [...]

Brink of agreement

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer has said he thinks we are on the brink of agreement to a Bali roadmap. This does not imply an early finish. When pushed on the time issue by journalists desperate to squeeze in a bite to eat, Mr de Boer acknowledged talks were likely to carry on throughout the night. [...]

Breakthrough?

Things are moving. The Indonesian presidency of the UN talks in Bali has tabled a compromise text on how future emission reduction commitments could be worded in a Bali roadmap. German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel is suddenly calling the US “flexible”. Journalists are looking busy. The proposed text, which ENDS has seen, drops the notorious [...]

Deforestation agreement

Consensus on a draft deforestation text closes another controversial item on the Bali agenda. Parties reached agreement late last night, announced Greenpeace representative Marcelo Furtado on Friday morning. EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas confirmed the deal in his morning statement to the press, calling it a “good balance”. Deforestation has been a key issue for several [...]

Gloomy faces

Empty corridors belied intense negotiations behind closed doors last night.   At around 11:30pm, the US tabled a “bombshell” – in the words of agitated NGOs this morning – recommending removing all reference to binding emission reductions from a Bali roadmap. The draft was distributed to journalists in the early hours by Greenpeace. It removes the [...]

Political temperature still rising

Despite the good news on technology transfer, the political storm over whether industrialised countries should specify a range for future emission cuts now only intensified as night fell in Bali on Thursday. Talks were expected to continue until the early hours. At lunchtime, UNFCCC chief Yvo de Boer told journalists he was “very concerned”  about the [...]

Progress!

A draft text on technology transfer has been agreed. After desperately gloomy prospects on Tuesday night, when talks broke down over the words “facility” and “programme”, negotiators have managed to settle on a text without brackets. This means none of it is still under dispute. The text must still be rubber-stamped by ministers, but no [...]