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Ministers, representing countries from all over the world, will be converging on Bali for the second, and most crucial, week of talks at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is here where hopes are that countries will be able to negotiate an agenda to create a new deal to tackle global warming to follow on from the existing Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
The negotiations will continue until 2009 but at Bali, the hopes are that a good road map can be delivered to take the world to a satisfactory agreement in 2009.
As he prepared to depart for Bali, Indonesia, Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders at the meeting – which he characterised as a “test of our collective will” – to negotiate an agenda to create a new deal to tackle global warming.
“Our ultimate goal is a comprehensive agreement on climate change that all nations can embrace,” he told reporters in New York, voicing hopes that the Conference will yield a “roadmap to a better future.”
The latest report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – a recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize – estimated that curbing serious global warming would cost as little as 0.1 per cent of GDP over the next 30 years.
It also reported that existing technologies offering at least a 10 per cent rate of return on investment – ranging from energy-efficient lightbulbs to alternative fuel sources – can slash the grown in energy use in the coming decades by half.
“We want to unleash the power of markets, capital, innovation and entrepreneurship in our fight against global warming,” Mr Ban said.
On day 6 of the conference, Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, said that discussions were going well and countries all had a strong willingness for a successful outcome on Bali. Progress on mitigation, adapatation and technology transfer, of particular interest for developing countries, were going really well Mr de Boer said.
Environment ministers are due to convene on Wednesday when the high level segment of the conference begins to hopefully reach an agreement on the shape of a future international climate pact.
View previous Bali update:
