The Bali Climate Talks: What's at Stake

The annual UN climate meetings are the primary forum for negotiating global climate solutions

Ron Luhur, our carbon markets specialist, is one of our 15 delegates participating in the annual climate talks, this year in Indonesia.

Dispatches from Bali

Peter Goldmark, director of our Climate and Air program, reports on the talks on our Climate 411 blog.

Bulletin 1: U.S. Senate action makes waves in Indonesia.

Bulletin 2: A "non-paper" addressing major issues (like what developing countries should do) circulates -- and looks promising.

Bulletin 3: Peter sums up where the talks are as the conference enters its final 72 hours.

Bulletin 4: In the dramatic final hours countries agree to a 2-year process that can lead to the next international climate treaty in 2009: the "Bali Roadmap."

Bulletin 5: Deforestation is finally in the climate fix mix.

From December 3-14, over 180 countries met in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss how to reduce global warming emissions, as soon as possible, and avert  dangerous climate change.

Environmental Defense's delegation had three main goals:

• help the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change countries create a 2-year road map for negotiating a new climate treaty that would start in 2013,
• garner support for a program that compensates countries (via a variety of sources, including the carbon market) that slow deforestation and
• tell the world that the U.S. is starting to act on climate change on a variety of levels and through shifts in public opinion.

What is the Conference of the Parties (COP)?

The COP is a 2-week global gathering to address climate change solutions. In 1992, most of the world's countries joined an international treaty — the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — to recognize the serious problem of global warming and begin finding solutions. In 2005, with most developed nations in the UNFCCC on board, an additional treaty went into effect: the Kyoto Protocol, which runs from 2008 through 2012. Many of the participants in this year's COP in Bali aim to launch the process to create the next climate treaty.

Who attends the COP?

Delegates representing countries in the UNFCCC have gathered for the COP for over a decade now. In addition, a range of UN bodies and governmental groups such as the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and International Energy Agency (IEA) and nongovernmental groups like Environmental Defense attend as observer organizations. This year, about 10,000 participants are expected.

Environmental Defense delegation

Our partners include:

• Woods Hole Institute
• Amazon Institute for Environmental Research (IPAM) - in Portuguese

Why was this year's conference of particular importance?

This year was critical to the ongoing international climate talks for several reasons. Chief among them was the need to launch a process for creating the next climate treaty.

• Planning for 2013 and beyond. It's time to start the next global climate framework. To ensure the next agreement goes into effect in 2013, leaving no gap between the Kyoto Protocol and its successor, the new framework needs to be approved by the end of 2009. The Bali Road map starts us on the right course.
• The latest scientific findings underscore the urgency to act now. The climate talks came on the heels of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in which the world's scientists make clear: we must start reducing global warming pollution immediately.
• The U.S. is starting to act. This is an especially critical year for the United States. As the number one global warming polluter, the U.S. needed to show the world that though we have yet to establish national climate change policy, the country is moving on the issue. Here are three areas of action:
  • Leading U.S. companies are calling for a cap on global warming pollution - 27 of America's top firms, including General Electric and Duke Energy,  have joined together with several leading environmental groups to form U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a strategic alliance to address climate change.
  • Congress is considering serious action - On December 5, just three days into the talks, the U.S.  Environment and Public Works Committee approved bipartisan climate change legislation. The bill, the Climate Security Act (S.2191), would reduce emissions by almost 20 percent below current levels by 2020, largely through an emissions cap and trade system. The bill is expected to reach the Senate floor sometime in 2008. (Read more on S.2191 and what an effective climate bill looks like.)
  • States have developed legally binding action plans to cut global warming pollution - California, New Jersey, Hawaii, Washington and Oregon have statuary caps on global warming emissions while 35 states have climate action plans.
• Addressing deforestation. Finally, but not of least importance, is the fact that Indonesia hosted the talks. Indonesia is the third largest global warming polluter because of deforestation, which is responsible for one-fifth of global warming pollution. Dealing with deforestation figured large in this year's agenda, and proposed solutions will build on Environmental Defense’s work on this issue since the late 1990s.

How did Environmental Defense participate?

Advocating for a way to slow tropical deforestation. Not addressing deforestation is a big flaw in the Kyoto Protocol. To rectify this, Environmental Defense helped develop the Compensated Reduction (CR) initiative, a plan that provides financial incentives for developing countries to reduce their rates of deforestation (learn more about compensated reduction). Deforestation was a major topic at the conference, and ended up being one of the most positive components of the Bali Roadmap.

Other focus areas. In addition to holding talks on CR, the Environmental Defense delegation led or co-sponsored discussions on the following:

• U.S. climate legislation
• tropical carbon supply and international carbon markets
• Amazon forest people and compensation for RED
• offset projects. 

How does the Environmental Defense team work?

Given the frenzied pace of the climate meetings, time is precious. Our team uses a variety of ways to influence the negotiators. One-page briefs summarizing our views on various issues are the bread and butter of our daily work. Here are some of the matierials our Environmental Defense used over the course of the conference.

• Why the World Needs to Avoid a Warming of 2°C [PDF]
• IPCC's Urgent Conclusion: We Must Reduce Emissions Now [PDF]
• Making Clean Development Mechanism Compatible with 2°C [PDF]

Bali Climate Talks in the News

World Bank Starts Deforestation, Climate Change Funds, Bloomberg News, (12/11/2007)

Delegates Weaken Deforestation Proposal as U.S. Balks, Bloomberg News, (12/11/2007)

Climate Experts Mull Payment to Stop Deforestation, NPR's Morning Edition, (12/3/2007)

U.N. Warns of Climate-Related Setbacks, The New York Times, (11/28/2007)

Posted: 01-Jan-1900; Updated: 17-Dec-2007