The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change opened yesterday in Bali, Indonesia. In a report on the conference website, it's noted that UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer praised Australia for it's choice to join the rest of the world (with one notable exception) in ratifying Kyoto.
The morning's opening session was “very upbeat,” Mr. de Boer said, culminating in long applause when Australia announced its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, which he called ”a very significant political decision.” He said that all countries except two who have been party to the Protocol have been disappointed to see two very important countries – the United States and Australia – take the decision not to ratify the Protocol, but that that group was now reduced by half. The long applause, he said, reflected appreciation for the courage shown by Australia in dramatically shifting its position and engaging more strongly with the international community on climate change, something which bodes well for Australia’s future role in the negotiations.
I'm kind of glad this video didn't include the part about the other half. It's pretty humiliating to be the odd man out when the issue is saving the planet. Good for Australia, though, electing someone who doesn't have his head buried in, well, you get the picture.
The site also has live webcasts, so if you can't wait for the massive influx of US media reports on the conference, you might want to catch it online.
Senator Kerry, who will lead the Senate delegation in Bali, explained the importance of the United States taking a leading role in addressing climate change in a Boston Globe op-ed.
Planet's fate hinges on our choicesBy John Kerry | December 4, 2007
WHILE LEADERS across the globe study the tea leaves of last week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, diplomats are meeting half a world away with the potential to be just as critical to our future and our security. Delegates from nearly every country in the world are arriving in Bali, Indonesia, to start work on a new international climate-change treaty. These negotiations mark the beginning of a process that may well hold in the balance the survival of our planet as we know it, not to mention the long-term safety of coastal cities like Boston.
During the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin wrote, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." Today, the nations of the world face a similar choice: Either we finally commit ourselves to a collective global effort to combat climate change, or we resign ourselves to watching humanity pollute our way toward calamity.
This week, Senator Barbara Boxer and I are leading a Senate delegation to Bali. We have been on the front lines of the battle to change America's domestic policies on energy and emissions. But unless we simultaneously engage the developing world in an effort to address greenhouse gas emissions, our best efforts at home could be swallowed whole by a surge of new emissions overseas.
Never before in human history has half the world industrialized at the same time. In the decades ahead, many of the 3 billion people living in China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia will begin driving cars, consuming ever greater quantities of energy and resources, and building the factories and power plants to sustain those habits.
America must step up and lead in the best traditions of our foreign policy. Otherwise, the world will not mobilize to stop catastrophic climate change in time. Today, American inaction has been used both as an excuse and a green light for all the world's polluters to continue behavior that will ultimately threaten life on Earth.
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Let's not just hope for progress in Bali, let's make it happen.
Additionally, yesterday the Senate Commerce committee approved three bills concerning climate change.
Check out some of the discussion in this audio clip courtesy of the Senate Commerce committee.
S. 2355
Climate Change Adaptation Act
To amend the National Climate Program Act to enhance the ability of the United States to develop and implement climate change adaptation programs and policies, and for other purposes.
Sponsor Sen. Cantwell, co-sponsors Sen. Kerry, Klobuchar
S.2307
Global Change Research Improvement Act of 2007
Title: A bill to amend the Global Change Research Act of 1990, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen. Kerry, co-sponsors Sen. Klobuchar, SnoweS. 1581
FOARAM Act
To establish an interagency committee to develop an ocean acidification research and monitoring plan and to establish an ocean acidification program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Sponsor Sen Lautenberg, co-sponsors Sen. Boxer, Cantwell, Kerry, Klobuchar, Nelson, Snowe, Stevens
