Global warming pact set for 2009

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

Bali gave birth Saturday to a landmark road map to create a new deal to fight global climate change, but only after nerve-wracking negotiations -- and persistent challenges from the United States.

Under heavy pressure from the rest of the delegates and possible international isolation, the U.S. dropped its last-ditch objections and joined the consensus hammered out at the conclusion of the two-week UN climate conference. "We want to be part of the road map ... and let me say to you that we will go forward and join the consensus," U.S. head of delegation Paula Dobriansky said, to cheers and a standing ovation from delegates representing some 190 countries.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had both appealed to the participants to come up with an agreed conclusion as the negotiations were earlier plunged into stalemate. "The magic moment came after both President Yudhoyono and the UN secretary-general delivered their incredible speeches, which changed the mood of the conference," UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) executive secretary Yvo de Boer said.

Although some still pointed to the failure of the conference to include any specific carbon emission reduction targets in the road map so as to accommodate the U.S.'s concerns, many immediately praised the agreement as it managed to combine the interests of developing and developed countries.

The road map sets out a clear agenda for key issues to be negotiated up to 2009, including action for adapting to the negative consequences of climate change, such as droughts and floods, ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and ways to widely promote climate-friendly technologies and financing for both adaptation and mitigation measures.

Concluding the negotiations in 2009 will ensure that the new deal can come into force by 2013, following the expiry of the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol. "This is a real breakthrough, a real opportunity for the international community to successfully fight climate change.

Parties have recognized the urgency for action on climate change and have now provided the political response to what scientists have been telling us is needed," said conference president Rachmat Witoelar, who is the Indonesian environment minister. However, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, were quick to express their disappointment at the exclusion of clear carbon emission cut targets of 25 to 40 percent as mandated by the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to keep the earth's temperature rise below 2 degree Celsius.

The agreed long-term cooperative action recognizes the IPCC's findings and only stipulates that deep cuts in global emissions will be required to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention. The absence of targets was apparently aimed at persuading the U.S. to get on board.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda had insisted from the beginning that the negotiations should be inclusive. "We want to include the U.S. in the negotiations to make the international efforts to respond to climate change work. I met Paula (Dobriansky), and tried to understand the U.S. concerns. I think the key words are patience, compromise and flexibility," Hassan said at the conclusion of the conference.

Apart from Hassan, Indonesian negotiators, including former foreign minister Ali Alatas, former Indonesian Ambassador to Japan Soemadi Brotodiningrat, and Director General for Multilateral Affairs Reslan Izhar Djenie, Director for Economic and Environmental Affairs Salman Al Farisi, and Ngurah Swajaya, the director for political affairs at ASEAN, had worked around the clock to persuade others to come on board.

They managed to bridge the gap between the EU and developing countries that insisted that the inclusion of carbon-emission-cut targets for developed countries were crucial to guiding the next two rounds of negotiations in Poland in 2008 and Denmark in 2009, in which future commitments will be concluded, and the U.S., which feared it would be economically disadvantaged by the rise of China and India should it commit to fixed targets.