A few final snap-shots from Bali...

In no particular order…

• Frazzled journalists: Becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of an outcome. In a press conference on Friday, one US journalist asked when it was all going to end because he wanted to make dinner plans.

• Conference lumbago: Carrying a shoulder bag around stuffed full with documents, camcorder, digital camera etc. for 2 weeks does your back no good at all.

• Hard working people: Nita, one of the barmaids at my ’local’ near my hotel, works all day running her own business (a laundry) and then all evening (until 11.30) working in the bar. And there was me thinking I worked long hours and had a right to feel tired.

• Confusion on the final day: Has anything been agreed? What has been agreed? Who is still opposing? Who is still meeting? What the hell is going on?

• Tired delegates: Asleep on sofas in the hotel next to the Convention Centre on the Friday night.

• Pacific Islanders: The loveliest people you could hope to meet, alongside all the people I met from Bali itself.

• Conference lag: Too little sleep, too much coffee, no time for lunch.

• Sympathy: Hilary Benn wearing a full suit giving a TV interview in the baking Bali sunshine – not easy under normal circumstances but in this heat more like torture.

• A blast in my ear: ‘Motivational’ music (usually Everyday Combat by Lostprophets) during the half-hour taxi ride to the Convention Centre each morning – partly to get me going for the day and partly to block out the fear of the taxi running over one of the many scooter riders weaving in and out of the traffic.

• The rumour mill: Everyone knows something but nobody knows everything. Be careful what you say because it only takes a second or third hand conversation to turn wild speculation into ‘hard fact’ – a kind of intergovernmental conference alchemy.

• Conference paranoia: Everyone else is busier than me. Everyone else knows what’s going on. There’s something more important I should be doing. There’s somewhere else I should be. Somebody please stop these voices in my head…

• Wanting to go home and be with my family: Oh good, I can do that now…

The deal

So there was me thinking I might get some time to rest in Bali before flying home but it’s been another full day at the Convention Centre.

Negotiations continued through the night on the key remaining sticking points: how to reference the science and targets and whether/how to differentiate between developed and developing countries. This morning a new draft proposal was tabled but on the latter issue, India asked for more time to negotiate. Several hours later, and after a certain amount of semi-organised chaos, a new compromise was reached.


It’s not easy to explain the full story, and also convey the tense and emotional atmosphere in the huge plenary hall, but basically the group of developing countries (G77) proposed an amendment, which was supported by the EU (to much applause). The US then objected to the amendment. What followed was a series of statements from countries across the world with varying degrees of condemnation of the US position. And with the World’s media watching, the United States dropped its objection.

So high drama on the last day (+1). The final outcome is what is being called the ‘Bali Road-Map’; an agenda for the next two years of negotiations. As I have said before, this seems dull and unimportant but believe me it is a critical staging post in the international process and every single word has been pored over and many have been fought over.

I won’t go into great detail on the text but I think there are two ways of looking at the final deal. First, in the context of what is actually needed to address the problem of climate change, the negotiations here have been some way off the mark, largely due to the intransigence at various times and on various issues of the US, Canada, Japan and Russia.

Second, in the context of current global politics, what has been achieved here is probably as good as could be expected in light of the Bush Administration’s history of outright hostility to climate science and to binding international action, particularly in the UN. Despite this hostility, the UN process is still alive and kicking and in my opinion it is the only way we can get governments from across the world to take cooperative action on such a complex interaction of issues.

So, the door is still open for a progressive outcome by the time the talks are supposed to conclude in 2009. But the door has certainly not been closed to a minimalist fudge. The critical question over the coming months and years is about the extent to which politics changes in key countries like the USA and also the extent to which governments like our own put in place the policies necessary to cut the carbon out of our economy.

WDM said at the very outset that the subtext of this negotiation was all about trade and competitiveness given the massive trade deficit the US has with China. And I think this has proved to be the case. The US in particular has been petrified of agreeing to anything that is seen back in the States as being a commitment to action by the US that is much greater than the Chinese. If you are interested, take a look at WDM’s report: Blame it on China? Which explores the international politics of climate change.

On a final note, all I can say is that I feel utterly drained. Sometimes I have wondered what the hell I’m achieving by being here. On a few occasions I’ve felt like I have made a small contribution. On the plus side, I leave here with a strong sense that there is a growing movement of people from all parts of the world seeking real and lasting solutions. Being concerned about climate change is not just the preserve of middle class westerners. The strongest advocates for action are those in developing countries living at the sharp end of its impacts, and the impacts of the ‘quack remedies’ like massive palm oil plantations for bio-diesel. The voices of these people need to be heard.

Please check out WDM’s web site over the coming weeks and months as we upload some of the interviews with developing country activists that I have been able to do here.

Anyway, I hope that you (all three of you) have found the past two weeks of blogging informative, and perhaps at times thought provoking and every now and then entertaining. Maybe you’ll hear from me, or perhaps someone else at WDM, next time governments from across the globe gather together for a big showdown

Meena Raman interview

Walden Bello on climate change and globalisation

Introduction to the United Nations Bali Climate Change Conference

With rich countries struggling to deliver meaningful cuts in carbon emissions and some developing countries rapidly increasing theirs, the world is in need of international cooperation to address global warming more than ever. The UN climate conference in Bali could not be more important. Thousands of delegates will be attending from Ministers, MEPs, civil servants, NGOs, the media and possibly one or two celebrities. I will be providing a behind the scenes take on the negotiations happening amongst governments as well as the discussions taking place on the fringes of the conference. I will also try to give a sense of the political game-playing, back-stabbing and back-room deal making that will either set us on the road to climate justice or climate disaster.

Peter Hardstaff, Head of Policy, World Development Movement (WDM)

As Head of Policy, Peter Hardstaff is responsible for facilitating development of policy, research and advocacy work to support WDM's campaigns. Prior to joining WDM in April 2002, Peter spent three years leading research and advocacy work on international trade policy issues at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Before joining the RSPB he was a consultant, researching, writing and designing a web site on international trade issues for Friends of the Earth, where he had previously worked for 5 years on forests and wildlife issues.