Bali: The end of the affair

Greenbang couldn’t let the day go by without touching on the environmental hair-pulling-out-fest that it Bali which has served to generate more in the way of press attention than confidence about a green future.

Greenbang will summarise. Two weeks of screaming and toys exiting prams at light speed have now culminated in an agreement to cut greenhouse gases. Now local politicians will have the joy of working out how to actually do that on their home turf. Cue more screaming and toys exiting prams.

The Guardian sums it up with more aplomb like this:

Governments hailed a deal on Saturday to start negotiations to adopt a new climate pact, but environmental groups said the agreement lacked teeth.

The deal binds the United States and China to greenhouse gas goals for the first time and a two-year agenda would lead to the adoption in Copenhagen in 2009 of a tougher, wider pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.

“This is the defining moment for me and my mandate as secretary-general,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Reuters after the meeting in a luxury Indonesian beach resort.

Greenbang presumes commitments to a greener future don’t extend to using videoconferencing when there’s a luxury beach resort to be had.