Bali climate delegates eke out `weak' deal

a collection of news articles and news releases following the close of the Bail UN climate conference, where a surprise turnaround by the US and Canada resulted in a consensus, albeit in a watered-down agreement among the 188 nations present…

Gateway to the UN System's Work on Climate Change

Proceedings and Documents from the Bali Conference

Bali Action Plan

Canada Bows to Pressure at Bali's 11th Hour
Canadian Action Network on Climate Change, 15-Dec-2007

Climate delegates eke out `weak' deal
Peter Gorrie, The Star, 15-Dec-2007

Bali breakthrough launches climate talks
David Fogarty, Reuters, 15-Dec-2007

FACTBOX: Achievements at Bali climate talks
Reuters, 15-Dec-2007

Isolated Canada grudgingly accepts Bali deal
Geoffrey York, Globe and Mail, 15-Dec-2007

U.S., Canada agree to framework at climate conference
Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service, 15-Dec-2007

Canada's environment minister says he regrets watered-down climate deal
Alexander Panetta, The Canadian Press, 15-Dec-2007

A Look at the Bali Climate Change Plan
The Associated Press, 15-Dec-2007

WWF says Bali Roadmap "weak on substance"
China View, 15-Dec-2007

Canada Bows to Pressure at Bali's 11th Hour

Bali - Nations agreed today on a "Bali roadmap" to launch negotiations for a post-2012 global climate agreement that will be guided by scientific analysis of the emission cuts needed to avoid dangerous climate change.

Key developing countries signalled a willingness to take on new commitments at the two-week-long UN climate conference. However, Canada worked with the United States for most of the meeting to oppose crucial elements of the Bali roadmap. As a result, parts of the deal are too vague to assure a successful outcome of the next round of UN negotiations, due to be completed in 2009.

"The world moved forward in Bali today, but we had the opportunity to do much more," said Steven Guilbeault, Équiterre. "The good news is that the Bali deal recognizes that rich nations need to cut their greenhouse gas pollution by 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and nations will negotiate the next phase of Kyoto on that basis."

Canada initially opposed this emissions reduction range in the final negotiating session, but agreed not to block the consensus position when it found itself virtually isolated.

"Canada worked against the key elements of this deal for most of the two weeks in Bali, and was singled out by other countries and high-ranking UN officials for its obstructive behaviour," said Dale Marshall, David Suzuki Foundation. "In the end, the government responded to public pressure and allowed this deal to go through."

The first phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012, and today's deal launches a two-year negotiation process for the post-2012 "Kyoto phase 2". In addition to setting a range of emission reduction targets for industrialized countries, the Bali roadmap contains commitments to negotiate actions to control emissions in developing countries; financial agreements for adaptation and the transfer of climate-friendly technology; and an agreement to tackle the problem of deforestation in developing countries.

"Now is when the real work begins," said Matthew Bramley, Pembina Institute. "The government's current targets and policies fall far short of the standard set in Bali. Nothing less than a massive scale-up of federal efforts on climate change is required for Canada to play a responsible part in the next two years of negotiations."

"Canada came to Bali demanding unfair commitments from developing countries, and was roundly criticized for it," said Emilie Moorhouse, Sierra Club of Canada. "In the end, the only bridge that Canada built in Bali was one that led to the U.S."

"The agreement to develop approaches to reduce deforestation and forest degradation is a key outcome of this meeting," said Chris Henschel, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. "Protecting carbon stored in forests and other ecosystems is an important complement to deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions."

-30-

Contacts:
Jean-Francois Nolet, Equiterre, +62-81-338-969139
Dale Marshall, David Suzuki Foundation, 613-302-9913
Matthew Bramley, Pembina Institute, +62-81-338-969113
Emilie Moorhouse, Sierra Club of Canada, +62-81-338-969125
Claire Stockwell, Greenpeace, +62-81-337-949709

After hours of chaotic, sometimes angry haggling, the United Nations conference on climate change last night appeared set to approve what critics describe as a weak deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Nerves were frayed as sleep-deprived delegates from nearly 190 countries repeatedly edged to the brink of agreement, then pulled back into more acrimonious debate. Each move further diluted a compromise that, from the outset, was, "a lot of structure with not a lot of content," said Dale Marshall of the David Suzuki Foundation.

Public opinion forced delegates to find a way to agree, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer told reporters. "I don't think any politician can afford to walk away from here."

But after one nasty exchange, de Boer left the conference stage in tears, an observer said.

As expected, the conference - on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali - did agree to a December 2009 deadline for talks aimed at creating a plan to cut global emissions after the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Beyond that, the main points are vague.

The agreement would set up two tracks for the talks.

Canada and the 36 other nations that accepted emissions reduction targets under Kyoto's first phase will continue their negotiations - which have achieved little since they began two years ago - on tougher targets.

On the second track, those countries, along with the 150 or so others that agreed 15 years ago climate change must be tackled, but which don't have targets, will engage in more general discussions on how emissions could be cut.

The frantic talks at the end of the two-week conference focused on what seem to be arcane matters. But observers said they could have a big impact, because the expected outcome means the "Bali road map" has no real destination.

Faced with strong objections from the United States and Canada, other rich nations backed down on whether the second track should have as a suggested goal that emissions be cut by 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

That goal, which international scientists said this year is essential to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, has been relegated to a footnote from a more prominent position in the agreement's preamble. Even there, it's presented as just one of several possible aims.

Instead, the preamble merely states, "deep cuts in global emissions will be required" to avoid dangerous climate change.

In this set of talks, the deal says, countries should aim for "measurable, reportable and verifiable" measures to reduce emissions that are "appropriate" for each of them.

Although Canada, the United States and other developed nations are supposed to meet a slightly tougher standard than those in the developing world, the agreement does represent movement by those poorer countries.

The agreement to discuss emission-cutting measures would be a first for China, India and others in this group that have booming economies and pollution, and reject any impediments to their growth. Still, they're committing only to talk, not to actual emissions cuts or targets.

That's also the case, though, for the United States.

"It starts a negotiation that allows but doesn't require an outcome where the U.S. takes a cap," or limit on greenhouse gases, said David Doniger, climate policy director at the Washington-based Natural Resources Defence Council.

Even so, "we can live with this," said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who had pushed for a stronger agreement.

"We must not forget that it's only a couple of years ago that (U.S. President George W.) Bush opposed any negotiations," said Norway's environment minister, Erik Solheim. "Now we are talking about commitments involving the United States."

But a spokesperson for nations forecast to be hardest hit by climate change, which includes islands likely to be inundated if sea level rises, said he was disappointed.

"People are negotiating, they are posturing, and not rising above entrenched national positions," said Angus Friday, Grenada's Ambassador to the UN and chair of the Alliance of Small Island states.

"We are ending up with something so watered down there was no need for 12,000 people to gather here in Bali to have a watered-down text. We could have done that by email."

The new deal also says the talks should include how developed nations can transfer "clean" emissions-cutting technologies to the developing world, and to consider how tropical nations might be compensated for preserving their rainforests - a major storehouse of carbon, the source of the major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

Late last night, it wasn't clear whether the other track of negotiations, for the 37 countries with Kyoto targets, would include the 2020 goal of a 25 to 40 per cent emissions cut for rich nations.

Canada, on the sidelines during most of the talks, was said to be urging its removal, arguing the target would be impossible to attain.

The federal government's plan, proposed this year by Environment Minister John Baird, would reduce emissions by 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020. If that were achieved, Canada would still be slightly above its 1990 emissions total and far off the scientists' target.

This track, however, will aim at a 50 per cent cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Critics say that's too remote to be meaningful, and tough medium-term steps are required.

But de Boer defended it. Setting the long-term target makes the 2020 goal implicit - "an inevitable stop on that road," he said.

With files from Star wire services

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Nearly 200 nations agreed at U.N.-led talks in Bali on Saturday to launch negotiations on a new pact to fight global warming after a reversal by the United States allowed a breakthrough.

Washington said the agreement marked a new chapter in climate diplomacy after six years of disputes with major allies since President George W. Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, the main existing plan for combating warming.

"This is the defining moment for me and my mandate as secretary-general," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after making a return trip to Bali to implore delegates to overcome deadlock after the talks ran a day into overtime.

Ban had been on a visit to East Timor. "I am deeply grateful to many member states for their spirit of flexibility and compromise," Ban told Reuters.

The Bali meeting approved a "roadmap" for two years of talks to adopt a new treaty to succeed Kyoto beyond 2012, widening it to the United States and developing nations such as China and India. Under the deal, a successor pact will be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen in late 2009.

The deal after two weeks of talks came when the United States dramatically dropped opposition to a proposal by the main developing-nation bloc, the G77, for rich nations to do more to help the developing world fight rising greenhouse emissions.

The United States is the leading greenhouse gas emitter, ahead of China, Russia and India.

Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, the host of the talks, banged down the gavel on the deal to rapturous applause from weary delegates.

"All three things I wanted have come out of these talks -- launch, agenda, end date," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told reporters.

The accord marks a step towards slowing global warming that the U.N. climate panel says is caused by human activities led by burning fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

Scientists say rising temperatures could cause seas to rise sharply, glaciers to melt, storms and droughts to become more intense and mass migration of climate refugees.

"U.S. HUMBLED"

"The U.S. has been humbled by the overwhelming message by developing countries that they are ready to be engaged with the problem, and it's been humiliated by the world community. I've never seen such a flip-flop in an environmental treaty context ever," said Bill Hare of Greenpeace.

The European Union, which dropped earlier objections to the draft text, was pleased with the deal.

"It was exactly what we wanted. We are indeed very pleased," said Humberto Rosa, head of the European Union delegation.

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel was cautiously optimistic.

"Bali has laid the foundations ...it was hard work and exhausting. But the real work starts now," he said in Bali.

But a leading Indian environmentalist was disappointed.

"At the end of the day, we got an extremely weak agreement," said Sunita Narain, head of the Centre for Science and the Environment in New Delhi. "It's obvious the U.S. is not learning to be alive to world opinion."

Agreement by 2009 would give governments time to ratify the pact and give certainty to markets and investors wanting to switch to cleaner energy technologies, such as wind turbines and solar panels.

Kyoto binds all industrial countries except the United States to cut emissions of greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012. Developing nations are exempt and the new negotiations will seek to bind all countries to emission curbs from 2013.

DAY OF DRAMA

In a day of drama and emotional speeches, nations had berated and booed the U.S. representatives for holding out. A wave of relief swept the room when the United States relented.

"The United States is very committed to this effort and just wants to really ensure we all act together," said Paula Dobriansky, head of the U.S. delegation.

"With that, Mr Chairman, let me say to you we will go forward and join consensus," she said to cheers and claps.

James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said: "This is not a step taken alone by America. This is a step taken by all the countries that the time had come to open a new chapter."

(Reporting by Adhityani Arga, Sugita Katyal, Alister Doyle, Emma Graham-Harrison, Ed Davies, Gde Anugrah Arka and Gerard Wynn; Editing by Alister Doyle)

(Reuters) - Climate talks in Bali, Indonesia, agreed on Saturday to start two years of negotiations to seal a broader pact to fight global warming.

As part of the meeting among 188 nations, a range of other pressing issues to aid the developing world were discussed. Following is what has been agreed, or not agreed, at the talks.

TWO-YEAR DIALOGUE

Negotiators agreed to start two years of talks on a new climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the main deal for fighting climate change until 2012, to bind outsiders led by the United States, China and India.

The talks will start with a first meeting by April 2008 and end with adoption of a new treaty in Copenhagen in late 2009.

A U.S. U-turn allowed the deal to go ahead after a dramatic session in which Washington was booed for opposing demands by poor nations for the rich to do more to help them fight warming.

AMBITION TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

The Bali talks were never expected to set firm greenhouse gas emissions targets but the Bali agreement did set a global aim for "deep cuts in global emissions" to avoid dangerous climate change

The final text distinguished between rich and poor countries, calling on developed nations to consider "quantified" emissions cuts and developing countries to consider "mitigation actions".

ADAPTATION FUND

The Bali meeting agreed to launch a U.N. fund to help poor nations cope with damage from climate change such as droughts or rising seas. The Adaptation Fund now comprises only about $36 million but might rise to $1-$5 billion a year by 2030 if investments in green technology in developing nations surges.

The accord, enabling the fund to start in 2008, broke deadlock on management by splitting responsibility between the Global Environment Facility, which funds clean energy projects, and the World Bank. The fund would have a 16-member board with strong representation from developing nations.

PRESERVING TROPICAL FORESTS

A pay-and-preserve scheme known as reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries (REDD) aims to allow poorer nations from 2013 to sell carbon offsets to rich countries in return for not burning their tropical forests.

The 189 nations recognized the urgent need to take further action to cut carbon and methane emissions from tropical forests. The draft decision encourages parties to undertake pilot projects to address the main causes of deforestation.

CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE

The meeting postponed until next year any consideration of a plan to fund an untested technology which captures and buries the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, emitted from power plants that burn fossil fuels. Some countries want capture and storage to qualify for carbon offsets for slowing global warming.

HFCs

Bali failed to agree whether or not to allow companies to sell carbon offsets from destroying new production of powerful greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Benefiting factories have been the biggest winners under a U.N. scheme to reward companies which cut greenhouse gas emissions.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

The final draft called for more financial resources and investment for developing countries on adaptation, mitigation and technology cooperation, especially for the most vulnerable.

Technology transfer is a key demand of developing nations. They say they should not have to sacrifice growth to fight warming, but cannot afford the clean technologies that would allow them to expand their economies while curbing emissions.

(Editing by David Fogarty)

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved

Isolated Canada grudgingly accepts Bali deal

NUSA DUA, Indonesia - After a failed attempt to block an agreement, Canada found itself isolated at the Bali conference Saturday and grudgingly accepted a new accord to set a target of 25 to 40 per cent for cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions by wealthy countries by the end of the next decade. Environment Minister John Baird spoke against the ambitious target, but found himself virtually alone. Only Russia supported him - so he withdrew his objection, sparking a lengthy burst of applause from other countries.

Mr. Baird also failed in his attempt to gain commitments by China, India and other developing nations to reduce their fast-growing emissions. "We weren't pleased with the language that weakened and watered-down the agreement that was adopted here, but it's better than no agreement," he told reporters later.

"There are 190 countries represented here in Bali, and 38 of them agreed to take on national binding targets today," he said. "We've just got to work on some of the other 150."

The developments came on a day of high drama and tension at the Bali conference as the 190 countries worked overtime to reach two major agreements after 15 days of negotiations.

The first agreement, applying to all 190 countries, was softened significantly to satisfy the opposition of the United States. The agreement proclaims that "deep cuts" will be required in global emissions of greenhouse gases to respond to the "urgency" of the global warming crisis.

But this agreement fails to mention any specific targets, leaving that issue for negotiations over the next two years. The European Union had pressed hard for the targets, but had to give up on the issue when the U.S. refused to accept it.

This broader agreement nearly collapsed at the last minute today when India and China insisted on stronger promises by wealthy countries to help provide "green" technology to the developing nations. When the tougher language was added to the agreement, the United States refused to accept the deal - sparking a wave of criticism from almost every other nation at the conference.

Finally the U.S. flip-flopped and accepted the language, allowing the deal to go ahead.

"I think the exciting part is that America is on board, which is a good thing," Mr. Baird said. "We've said we need to get all the big emitters on board - the United States, China and India. The good news is that we came out with one of the three. We've got two years to negotiate and maybe we'll get the other two on board."

Conference delegates openly jeered the United States when it tried to oppose the promises sought by the developing nations. Then speaker after speaker demanded that the U.S. must not be allowed to kill the deal single-handedly.

"What we witnessed today was incredible drama," said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "I've been following the climate negotiations for 20 years and I've never seen anything like it. These talks came to the brink of collapse. Then there was a brilliant strategy to unite the world to call on the United States to rejoin the international community and take on this problem.

The second agreement, later in the day, set targets for deep cuts in emissions - but it applied only to the 38 wealthy countries that have ratified the Kyoto accord, the 1997 agreement that set moderate targets for emission cuts by the wealthy nations.

The United States has not ratified Kyoto, so it was not represented in negotiations on this agreement - although environmentalists said Canada was doing the bidding of the U.S. by opposing the deal.

"In the end, we're thankful that Canada listened to most countries here, and listened to Canadians who wanted action, not obstruction and not following the lead of George Bush," said Quebec-based environmentalist Steven Guilbeault.

Mr. Baird said he was not at all worried by the widespread criticism of Canada's stance at the Bali conference. "We came here to say things that a lot of people were thinking," he said. "There is a certain price of leadership, and I don't apologize for that."

NUSA DUA, Indonesia -- The Harper government and the Bush administration caved in to international pressure at the United Nations climate change summit on Saturday, accepting the "Bali roadmap" towards a new comprehensive agreement to stop human activity from causing irreversible damage to the earth's atmosphere and ecosystems.

The framework was hailed by the UN's top climate change official, Yvo de Boer, as an ambitious, transparent and flexible solution on the road to a comprehensive treaty in 2009, imposing deeper commitments on the richest nations in the world to slash their contribution to global warming, as well as softer targets or commitments for developing countries to come into force after the end of the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period in 2012.

With the Harper government silent, several developing countries, along with the European Union members protested, booed and resisted attempts by the U.S., which has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, to impose what most of the countries felt were unfair obligations on the developing world in the fight against climate change.

The pressure eventually forced U.S. lead negotiator Paula Dobriansky to cave in and accept the consensus, allowing the Bali roadmap to be adopted.

In a subsequent debate of Kyoto countries, Canadian Environment Minister John Baird attempted to stop members of the protocol from declaring that developed countries should collectively strive to deepen their post-2012 targets in the range of a 25- to 40-per-cent reduction below 1990 levels by 2020.

The Harper government has insisted that such a measure would be impossible for Canada to achieve in 12 years. But following a series of rebukes, criticism and pleas from 17 different countries, Baird told the conference he would "stand down," garnering a warm ovation from delegates.

The concession also meant that he had failed to achieve his main objective of getting binding commitments for major emerging economies such as China and India to reduce their emissions in absolute terms.

"I would underline, I'm naturally disappointed that we didn't have a stronger, more effective mitigation building block," Baird told reporters. "But we're not going to give up."

Many delegates and observers suggested that the conference was forced to extend for an extra day, instead of wrapping up as scheduled on Friday, because of systematic efforts from the U.S., Canada and Japan to block them from officially recognizing that the next climate change agreement should be guided by stringent targets in tune with the latest scientific evidence.

Baird was also accused of skipping out on key meetings during the final hours of the conference and of deliberately trying to slow down the process and prevent a consensus on the Indonesian resort island.

"He treated this as a holiday retreat rather than a working session," said NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen, who also attended the conference. "He went and spent time with people he agreed with as opposed to people he needed to negotiate with."

But Baird said he worked very long days, getting little sleep in the face of an intensive barrage of criticism leveled at Canada during the two-week conference. He said this was "the real price of leadership" for indicating his government's true beliefs about what was required in the best possible deal for the environment and the planet.

"A lot of countries were thinking what Canada was saying at this conference and simply put we have no option but to work hard for an effective agreement," said Baird, before taking a jab at Liberal Leader Stephane Dion. "I don't want to come to another conference in 10 years and have the deputy leader of my own party say I didn't get it done."

But Dion, who indicated that he had worked behind the scenes to build a consensus at the conference, said he was pleased that the process he started as chair of the 2005 climate change summit in Montreal was moving forward.

"We are pleased that the baby we launched is a teenager, and hopefully will become an adult in 2009 to be ready to act in 2013," said Dion.

Many observers, including the European Union's Environment Commissioner said that Dion was "instrumental" in saving the Montreal conference and getting countries to agree to improve and extend the Kyoto Protocol.

"In 2005, in Montreal, we started a dialogue in order to prepare negotiations (even though) at that time, many countries did not want to hear the word negotiation, and now we'll start the negotiation," said Dion. "The main reason why (countries succeeded in Bali) is that China came here saying that they were ready to take commitments and they then created a dynamic that hopefully Canada (will) not kill."

With talks going into overtime on Saturday morning in Bali as developing countries protested last minute changes to the Bali roadmap, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was forced to make an unexpected appearance expressing his disappointment that nations still had not reached a consensus.

"Seize the moment, this moment, for the good of all humanity," said Ban, in an official address to the conference.

"I appeal to you to make the necessary agreement now, to not risk all that you have achieved so far. The scientific realities affecting our planet demand a high level of ambition."

In the end, the Bali Roadmap consists of a framework for emissions cuts, the transfer of clean technology to developing countries, reducing deforestation, and adaptation aid for developing countries vulnerable to droughts and rising sea levels.

Environmental groups said the final results indicated that the Harper government should go back to the drawing board and fix its domestic policies.

"We've seen the U.S. rally to the rest of the world at the eleventh hour, and we've seen Canada rally to the rest of the world at the eleventh hour, but this is by no stretch of the imagination, leadership," said Equiterre spokesperson Steven Guilbeault.

"If that's leadership, then I've never seen leadership before."

© CanWest News Service 2007

BALI, Indonesia - Canada helped gut some of the substance from a world climate-change deal and then expressed regret Saturday when the final agreement was ultimately watered down even more than it had hoped.

Environment Minister John Baird hailed as a positive step a United Nations agreement to seek a new global climate-change treaty by 2012.

But he expressed regret that the agreement was almost completely stripped of any reference to numbers and targets which would have been the starting point for the discussion.

Canada sided with the U.S. and Japan in a small group of wealthy non-European countries that successfully removed references to emissions targets for developed countries by 2020.

The treaty was also stripped of references to longer-term targets - which Baird said he had been prepared to accept.

Baird said the Bali conference achieved its primary goals of launching negotiations, getting all countries to agree to basic parameters, and setting a 2009 deadline date.

"We were naturally disappointed in the language that weakened and watered down the agreement," Baird said.

"But it's better than no agreement."

In a separate agreement among Kyoto signatories, Baird was among the few voices calling for the 2020 targets to be removed.

A handful of countries then rose to take a slap at Canada's position and Baird eventually agreed to leave the target in the final text - even though he says Canada can never meet it.

The high point of the exercise came after a negotiating session that stretched a full day longer than expected.

In the larger non-Kyoto group, the United States earned the wrath of other nations by opposing a deal that many had already considered far too weak.

Then in a move as sudden as the one Baird made within the Kyoto group, American delegates shocked their peers and drew sustained applause by declaring their support for the final agreement.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion hailed the global agreement as an encouraging development in the fight against climate change. But he regretted the role played by Canada's government.

"If Canada would have shown more leadership it would have been better than that," he said.

"If Canada would have been with Europe instead of being in the same bed as President Bush, it would have been better."

Saturday's developments came after marathon negotiations overnight, which first settled a battle between Europe and the U.S. over whether the document should mention specific goals for rich countries' obligations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Upcoming talks may help determine for years to come how well the world can control climate change, and how severe the consequences of global warming will be.

European and U.S. envoys duelled into the final hours of the two-week meeting over the European Union's proposal that the Bali mandate suggest an ambitious goal for cutting industrial nations' emissions - by 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

That guideline's specific numbers were eliminated from the text, but an indirect reference was inserted instead.

Canada had dismissed the European objective as unattainable, arguing that it would need to slash emissions by 38 to 53 per cent within only 12 years to reach that target.

It's a position that has earned Canada the scorn of environmentalists in Bali, with one spoof newspaper ad depicting Stephen Harper, George W. Bush, and Japan's Yasuo Fukuda in a mock movie poster as stars on an environmental Titanic.

The negotiations snagged again early Saturday over demands by developing nations that their need for technological help from rich nations and other issues receive greater recognition in the document launching the negotiations.

The United States initially rejected those demands, but backed down after delegates criticized the U.S. stand and urged a reconsideration.

The sudden reversal was met with rousing applause.

In a UN process requiring consensus, both sides won and lost.

The broadly worded "Bali roadmap" doesn't itself guarantee any level of emissions reductions or any international commitment by any country - only a commitment to negotiate.

As for developing countries, the final document instructs negotiators to consider incentives and other means to encourage poorer nations to curb, on a voluntary basis, growth in their emissions. The explosive growth of greenhouse emissions in China, India and other developing countries potentially could negate cutbacks in the developed world.

The Bali conference had been charged with launching negotiations for a regime of deeper emissions reductions to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which requires 37 industrial nations to cut output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Earlier Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had expressed frustration over the last-minute dispute over the Bali document and urged the more than 180 national delegations to swiftly adopt it.

The U.S. has come under intense criticism in Bali, including from former vice president Al Gore, over the Bush administration's opposition to mandatory emission cuts. But all parties acknowledged that negotiations cannot succeed without the involvement of the United States, the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases.

For years, the rest of the world has sought to bring the Americans into the framework of international mandates. At this point, however, many seem resigned to waiting for a change in White House leadership after next November's election.

In a series of landmark reports this year, the UN's network of climate scientists warned of severe consequences - from rising seas, droughts, severe weather, species extinction and other effects - without sharp cutbacks in emissions of the industrial, transportation and agricultural gases blamed for warming.

To avoid the worst, the Nobel Prize-winning panel said, emissions should be reduced by 25 per cent to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

The Kyoto Protocol nations have accepted that goal, and the numbers were written into early versions of the Bali conference's draft decision statement - not as a binding target, but as a suggestion in the document's preamble.

The conference concluded with the Canadian government involved in open warfare against its own country's environmentalists.

Environment Minister John Baird refused to meet with green groups in Bali and his delegation worked actively to discredit them. Government officials drew attention to some having partisan ties to the Liberal party.

The environmentalists swung back repeatedly.

Their tactics ranged from conventional petitions to covert efforts, and even tried sleep-deprivation tactics with one Canadian official.

They obtained the cellphone number of a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, spread it around the Internet, and bombarded Dimitri Soudas with hundreds of crank-calls and text messages throughout the wee hours Saturday.

They also put Baird on the defensive by informing Canadian media any time the minister left a meeting. He found himself fending off suggestions that he skipped critical talks late Thursday.

Accounts from inside the negotiating chamber hint at the multitude of sticking points.

BALI, Indonesia (AP) - Key points of the final decision at the U.N. climate change conference setting an agenda for talks on a new global warming pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol at the end of 2012:

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS:

It recognizes that "deep cuts" in global emissions will be required to prevent dangerous human interference in the climate. It references scientific reports that suggest a range of cuts between 25 and 40 percent by 2020, but prescribes no such targets itself.

DEADLINE:

Negotiations for the next climate accord should last for two years and conclude in 2009 in order to allow enough time to implement it at the end of 2012. Four major climate meetings will take place next year.

RICH AND POOR:

Negotiators should consider binding reductions of gas emissions by industrialized countries, while developing countries should consider moves to control the growth of their emissions. Richer countries should work to transfer climate-friendly technology to poorer nations.

ADJUSTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE:

Negotiators should look at supporting urgent steps to help poorer countries adapt to inevitable effects of global warming, such as building seawalls to guard against rising oceans.

DEFORESTATION:

Negotiators should consider "positive incentives" for reducing deforestation in developing countries, many of which are seeking international compensation for preserving their forest "sinks" absorbing carbon dioxide.

BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The World Wild Fund for Nature,(WWF), a global environmental conservation organization, said Saturday that the Bali Roadmap adopted at the end of a two-week U.N. climate conference fell short in its ambition and "weak on substance".

WWF said in a press release following the meeting that political leaders meeting for the U.N.'s climate change conference will start formal negotiations with a 2009 end date, but the deal fell short in its ambition.

The Bali Roadmap was a deal " weak on substance", WWF said. "The U.S. administration was asked to get out of the way, and in the end they bowed to pressure," said Hans Verolme, Director of WWF 's Global Climate Change Program.

"The Bali Roadmap leaves a seat at the table for the next U.S. president to make a real contribution to the global fight to stop dangerous climate change, "WWF said.

WWF urged industrialized countries to agree to deep emission cuts, and to leverage new funding and support for technology transfer, finance and adaptation over the next two years.

The EU and leading developing countries will have to propose a work plan for this two-year negotiation marathon. These talks will have to make up for Bali's shortcomings, it said.

WWF also praised progress the meeting made on some of the practical building blocks of a future climate change regime, including technology transfer, adaptation and financial incentives. Over 11,000 delegates from over 187 countries gathered in Bali, a resort island of Indonesia, for the U.N. climate meeting, which aims to launch negotiations on a new climate regime before the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The protocol binds 36 industrialized countries to cut emissions by an average 5 percent below the 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The final text of the Bali Roadmap dropped the EU' favored deep cut of emissions by 25-40 percent goal for rich countries by 2020 due to the opposition of the United States, Japan and Canada. The findings of the Fourth Assessment Report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that to keep the world below 2 degrees centigrade warming compared with pre-industrial times, global emissions need to peak and decline before 2020.