TalkClimateChange

With no big headlines emerging from Bali yet - except for doom and gloom stories which are being released to keep the mood right - we’ve been reading the daily press briefings to see if we can find any hints. The briefing for 8^th December tells us:

As negotiations on a future climate deal reached the halfway stage in Bali, there was optimism that progress was being made on the main building blocks which will shape the agreement.

After what he described as a busy week of talks, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, spoke of a “strong willingness” by Parties for an outcome at the conference, which has attracted more than 10.000 participants, including delegates, NGO’s, international organizations and the media.

So far, so good. Although a “strong willingness” in political speak is a long long way away from a strong intention or an actual decision.

But it gets more interesting – first of all Mr de Boer talks about the ongoing stalling game over emissions targets for developing and industrialised nations, and then makes this interesting statement;

Mr. de Boer expressed the hope that this whole discussion would be taken up only at the end of the two-year debate, since countries needed to be clear first on the instruments they will have at their disposal to act on mitigation of climate change and adaptation to it. Only then would the foundations be laid for adopting ambitious targets that “make sense.”

Does he mean two years, or two weeks?

Perhaps two years is more realistic, and perhaps the science will be a little more mature by then, and maybe by then someone will have brokered a clever detail to help the US, China and India agree on the issue – but when some scientists tell us that we have 15-20 years to start sorting the mess out then two years seems like a loooong time.