So there was me thinking I might get some time to rest in Bali before flying home but it’s been another full day at the Convention Centre.

Negotiations continued through the night on the key remaining sticking points: how to reference the science and targets and whether/how to differentiate between developed and developing countries. This morning a new draft proposal was tabled but on the latter issue, India asked for [...]

So here is the way things have played out in the last 24 hours.

At around midnight (Bali time) on Thursday 13th the US delegation dropped a negotiating bombshell. Text was submitted proposing to replace an agenda for talks on mandatory emissions cuts with essentially a process for agreeing voluntary emissions reductions. This sent the whole conference into a spin.

Governments and NGOs here went into overdrive and thankfully the [...]

You might not have guessed from the picture that has been selected to appear at the top of this blog page, but I’m actually a serious and intense sort of person. Which is starting to come in handy because things are getting increasingly serious and intense.

Now I have no doubt that for many outside observers a lot of this stuff will appear dreadfully dull. Let’s face it, governments have [...]

Last night I ended up at a ‘party’ to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol and had the curious experience of hearing a bunch of delegates singing 'happy birthday' to the climate change treaty.

Speeches were made with several would-be orators making rather laboured attempts to compare Kyoto to the story of a growing baby.

It's a curious choice because, if Kyoto were a infant, when she [...]

Sometimes it feels like a trade fair here in Bali what with the dozens of stalls lining the corridors of the convention centre. And it looks like Dr Quack has driven his cart all the way to Bali to peddle his miracle climate change cures…

'Do you suffer from excess emissions that make life a misery for people around you? Then fear not, Dr Quack’s patented miracle remedies© are what [...]

So, who do you think is the biggest non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Bali? Which NGO do you think has registered the most delegates to attend the climate conference? Is it Greenpeace? Is it the World Wide Fund for Nature? Could it be Friends of the Earth? Or maybe big business lobbyists the International Chamber of Commerce?

A couple of days ago I went through the official delegates list and [...]

It’s the weekend and chaos levels have been adjusted to ‘moderate’; which gives me the chance to have a political rant (of a sort). I was scanning through my e-mail in-box yesterday when I happened across a press release from the Heartland Foundation, a Chicago-based ‘think tank’. This lot claims, in reference to the agenda of European governments, that “European liberal groups have hijacked the [climate] conference and are pushing [...]

Trade ministers are flying in for a two-day meeting starting tomorrow. Woohoo! Can’t wait. There’s nothing quite like a depression (collective noun) of trade ministers in town to truly put a downer on your day.

Anyway, why, might you ask, are trade ministers coming to Bali for a meeting at the same time as a UN climate conference? What is it they want? Very good questions, I would respond. [...]

As a veteran, if that’s the right word, of several international governmental meetings (WTO, World Bank/IMF, G8 etc.), I have to confess it’s refreshing to be demanding that governments come together and reach a positive agreement.

Often, we are ‘manning the barricades’ (metaphorically or actually) in an attempt to stop something bad happening.

Saying that, it’s usually more about perception than reality. Take the trade talks as an example. [...]

Take an incalculable amount of potential human suffering and environmental degradation to form the base. Put to one side for later.

In a large mixing bowl, add one European Union. Whisk thoroughly with a strong dose of impressive posturing but be careful not to over-do it as this may cause the reality to separate from the rhetoric, leaving a sour taste. Add a teaspoonful of arrogance at this point, as [...]