Sunday, December 16, 2007

Non-failure in Bali

The possibility of more meaningful international action is not foreclosed, which is a victory of sorts. I like the way AP Correspondent Charles Hanley tells the story:

Then the delegate from Papua New Guinea leaned into his microphone.

"We seek your leadership," Kevin Conrad told the Americans. "But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way."

The U.N. climate conference exploded with applause, the U.S. delegation backed down, and the way was cleared Saturday for adoption of the "Bali Roadmap."


See also the New York Times story.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 16, 2007 at 3:34 PM

    Clap. Clap! CLAP!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hank RobertsDecember 16, 2007 at 5:44 PM

    I saw a lot of things over the days that the US wasn't giving in on. Has anyone a summary of what was successfully stonewalled, before this 'acceptance' of a consensus to continue conversations?

    I think refusing any new sharing of intellectual property (patents on energy saving devices and methods) was a big one the US held the line on. What else?

    Why do I think this last minute 'acceptance' was planned all along but only done after successfully blocking a lot of individual agenda items?

    Oh, I don't know. Cynical, I guess. It seems trite. It also seems very unlikely to have been spontaneous or up to the representative.

    ReplyDelete

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