U.S. Finally Agrees to Bali Climate Compromise
The United States finally accepted a compromise on Saturday that outlines talks on reducing carbon dioxide emissions over the next two years after initially rejecting the terms.
Negotiation had extended into late Friday night even though the U.N. Climate Change Conference was scheduled to end earlier in the day. The main disagreement was over wording about future emissions cuts that included specific guidelines.
Frustrating the global community, the U.S. delegation objected the EU's push to require developed countries to cut their emissions by 25 to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, according to CNN. In the compromise pact, the specific figures were removed and instead a footnote was added that referenced the scientific study that supports them.
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After the EU and the U.S. came to an agreement, the American delegation next objected the plan because it wanted developing countries to carry more of the responsibility in emission cuts. However, the United States in the end relented, following pressure from developing countries.
"The United States is very committed to this effort and just wants to really ensure we all act together," said Paula Dobriansky, head of the U.S. delegation at the conference on Saturday in Bali, according to Reuters.
"With that, Mr. Chairman, let me say to you we will go forward and join consensus," she said to cheers and applause.
Earlier on Saturday, U.S. representatives were booed by protestors because it had initially rejected the climate change agreement.
The Bali pact is meant to be a roadmap for future climate talks, which will culminate in Copenhagen in 2009. The new framework to be completed in 2009 will succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the current main global plan to combat global warming, which will expire in 2012.
Kyoto was ratified by 175 countries and organizations, including the European Union, but the United States rejected the protocol because it set mandatory emission cuts. One of the main goals of the Bali conference was to engage the United States in climate change discussions with the ultimate goal of getting Washington to sign the new agreement in 2009.
The United States is the leading greenhouse gas emitter in the world, but rapidly developing China and India are expected to soon become the dominant emitters.
In response to the Bali conference, the World Council of Churches - which hosted an ecumenical service alongside the Bali climate conference this week – urged the need for a "change of paradigm" in thinking in response to the challenge of climate change.
"This kind of movement just does not happen on its own; it must be catalyzed by agents of change. The world Faiths could be one of those catalysts," wrote the WCC in a letter to delegates at the U.N. climate conference, dated Dec. 14. "Societies must shift to a new paradigm where the operative principles are ethics, justice, equity, solidarity, human development and environmental conservation."
The ecumenical body noted the Christian tradition believes that humans cannot "do whatever we want" with the earth.
"We cannot make use of nature using it only as a commodity. We must bear in mind that our liberty does not allow us to destroy that which sustains life on our planet," the letter read.
In the United States, Church World Service along with 29 U.S.-based development, faith, and environmental groups urged Washington to act immediately to reduce its contribution to global warming.
The groups called on the U.S. government to provide assistance to developing countries combating global warming, to work with other countries in the effort to reduce greenhouse gases, and for the country to shift to a more sustainable domestic energy path.
Following the U.S. agreement on the Bali compromise Saturday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the pact "a good beginning."
"This is just a beginning and not an ending," Ban said, according to CNN. "We'll have to engage in many complex, difficult and long negotiations."
