Main focus of Monday, December 17, 2007

Bali, one step forward for the climate?

In Bali, Indonesia, the 187 countries of the United Nations managed on Saturday, December 15th, to reach an agreement on global warming. The so-called Bali Roadmap, which marks the beginning of negotiations due to last two years, is for the first time associating both industrialised countries and developing countries in the reduction of carbon gas emissions. The European press wonders if this agreement will lead to concrete action.

The Irish Times - Ireland

The Irish daily views the Bali conference in a positive light: "It is very rare indeed in this fractious world for a large number of countries to agree on anything. Yet in Bali 187 members of the United Nations - large and small, rich and poor - adopted a mandate for a new, more intensive round of negotiations, with a two-year deadline, to reach agreement on deep cuts in the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for causing global warning. ... One of the most heartening aspects of the Bali conference was the willingness of China - whose emissions, though enormous, are six times lower than the US on a per capita basis - to become actively engaged in the search for solutions. However, the most effective way to encourage China and other major developing countries such as India, Brazil and South Africa to find more environmentally sustainable growth paths is for developed countries, notably the US, to lead by example." (17/12/2007)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Global

Hospodářské noviny - Czech Republic

Tomas Nemecek observes: "As opposed to what sceptics predicted, there was a breakthrough in Bali. True, we still don't have any binding maximum limitations. That will be the topic for Copenhagen in 2009. But for the first time, China and India committed themselves to reducing greenhouse gasses. And also for the first time – though not voluntarily - the USA has agreed as well. It was no accident that Senators Lieberman and Warner of the US Congress have just now brought out their climate-political roadmap of upper limits for greenhouse gas emissions, oriented towards European guidelines. Bali was a precursor to the readiness of the entire world to do something against global warming." (17/12/2007)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Global
All available articles from » Tomáš Němeček

Le Courrier - Switzerland

Fabio Lo Verso takes stock of the Bali conference. "In the absence of sincere and conclusive adherence to Kyoto guidelines, China, Russia and India have at least learnt to speak an 'ecologically correct language'. This is the mark of consensus in Bali, a sort of a la carte compromise: each country will be able to adopt the scenario that most suits it providing it multiplies declarations and brandishes its faith in the climate change struggle. More ambitious decisions will be made later, in Copenhagen, in 2009 [Where and when a UN conference will be held and a new treaty on climate change is due to be adopted]. Thus Bali has deliberately distanced the rigidity of Kyoto to soften-up the positions of the more reluctant. By joining this movement at the last minute, Washington has taken an unexpected turn, six years after having tried to sink the Kyoto protocol." (17/12/2007)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Environmental Policy, » Asia, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Fabio Lo Verso

Les Echos - France

Patrick Lamm considers that "to have kept the United States in the negotiation process represents an encouraging result in itself. All eyes are turned to Washington and the election of a new president of the United States next year, who will hopefully be more flexible than George W. Bush. ... But in the meantime, something concrete needs to be put on the drawing board. This is what will be attempted right from this week by Europeans, who are on the frontline of this crusade. This Wednesday [December 19th] the European Commission is due to present its new norms for cars' carbon dioxide emissions. But there is little chance that a decision made on this occasion, for Europeans are themselves divided between the Germans who don't want to handicap their big saloon cars and the Latin countries (France and Italy) who are defending their smaller, less pollutant engines. The road to a rescued planet will be long." (17/12/2007)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Environmental Policy, » Europe, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » Patrick Laam

Der Standard - Austria

"International climate diplomacy" is the wrong weapon in the fight against global warming, says political scientist Ulrich Brand of the University of Vienna. Governments should rather focus on achievements in their own countries: "And the governments are afraid to tell it like it is, to their own citizens: The fact is, they must accept – and put into practice - a radical restructuring of the traffic system, away from the automobile. The consumption of meat and use of electronic appliances must be cut back dramatically. The increasingly absurd competition between many companies for access to resources, so as to produce more cheaply – thus causing more damage to the environment – must stop... Consider an auto-free Vienna inside the belt – it would mean a drastic reduction of traffic. We don't need the EU or the US government, which 'give in' under diplomatic pressure, without actually following through." (17/12/2007)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Austria, » Global
All available articles from » Ulrich Brand

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