A compromise deal for a new international climate change agenda was recently agreed at the UN summit in Bali. Ministers from around 180 countries agreed an agenda for the agreement, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. The move was hailed by environment secretary, Hilary Benn, as, "An historic breakthrough and a huge step forward. For the first time ever all the world's nations have agreed to negotiate on a deal to tackle dangerous climate change."
However, the EU conceded on one of the main sticking points, the inclusion in the road map of a reference of 25% to 45% emissions cuts by developed countries by 2020, which scientists have said are necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. The EU had insisted the figures were in the document because they are based on the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and an ambitious road map was needed. Nevertheless, the US demanded and won their removal.
The nebulous agreement followed weeks of insults, arguments and threatened boycotts and sanctions. A compromise deal accepted a road map in which targets were missing, as were references to the need for emissions to peak within 10 to 15 years and for global greenhouse gas output to halve by 2050.
Instead the document states countries recognise that "deep cuts in global emissions" will be required, and calls for a "long-term global goal for emissions reductions."
Campaigning groups have hit out at the US's "wrecking policy". Keith Allott, Head of Climate Change at WWF UK , said, "We were looking for a road map with a destination". Moreover, Nelson Muffuh, a Christian Aid senior climate change policy analyst commented, "We were expecting a road map, and we've got one. But it lacks signposts and there is no agreed destination."
