Bali talks: US caves in to developing nations

The US caved in to the pressure from developing countries at climate-change talks in Bali, Indonesia, accepting a compromise that will pave the way for a new global-warming treaty.

The agreement ended a day of drama that saw China's delegation demand an apology from the conference organiser, the head of the United Nations' climate change committee leave the stage in tears, and the US reverse its position minutes after being booed for rejecting the recommendations of poorer nations.

"I am astounded at how that was handled by the US," said David Doniger, a former US Environmental Protection Agency official who is now climate policy director at the Natural Resources Defence Council. "They were completely isolated and it just shows how much the world wants a new face from the US on global warming."

Talks overran yesterday's deadline and carried on into the early hours as the developing nations clashed with the US over commitments to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Delegates from more than 150 countries were in Bali to hammer out a negotiating agenda that would lead to the signing of a new treaty to fight global warming to replace the Kyoto Protocol that runs out in 2012.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged the delegates to reach an agreement, and the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew back to Bali, warning negotiators that a failure of talks would amount to "a betrayal to our planet."

The US reversal came after criticism from South Africa and Papua New Guinea, whose chief delegate Kevin Conrad said: "If you cannot lead, leave it to the rest of us. Get out of the way."

US lead negotiator Paula Dobriansky responded to boos from delegates by saying the country would "join consensus," just minutes after rejecting the tabled text. She later said the accord marked "a new chapter in climate diplomacy."

Delegates agreed on a two-year road map aimed at writing a new accord to fight climate change by the end of 2009, to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The plan calls for all developed nations to take on binding emissions "commitments or actions," while also requiring developing nations to make efforts to limit output of greenhouse gases.

"The final text was very weak so it shouldn't be difficult for the US to accept it," Su Wei, deputy head of China's delegation, said in an interview in Bali. "It did not require the US to do a lot."

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the agreement was "exactly what we wanted. We wanted to launch negotiations, we wanted to clear a deadline and we want an end date, and those we have got."

De Boer earlier walked out of the meeting in tears after China's delegation demanded to know why the session had twice been started while separate talks were ongoing elsewhere. Negotiators worked through last night and into this afternoon on the compromise.

The European Union and the developing countries had earlier pushed for industrialised nations to seek emission cuts of 25 to 40 per cent by 2020. In the end, the goals were relegated to a footnote in the agenda.

"We have got a historic breakthrough here in Bali today," UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told reporters in Bali. "The world is waking up to find that all of the nations have agreed for the first time ever that we are going to embark on a negotiation to agree a deal to cope with and overcome dangerous climate change within two years."