Twenty thousand delegates, observers, business leaders, and government ministers from 190 countries meet in Bali, Indonesia, from December 3-14. They are gathering to discuss life after the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. treaty on climate change, which expires in 2012.
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The Bali meeting will engage delegates in dozens of technical, scientific and financial discussions relating to the current climate change protocol. But they are also meeting to consider the building blocks and a timetable for crafting a new, post-Kyoto agreement.
Harlan Watson is a member of the . He says negotiators must come to a consensus over a Bali Roadmap that will advance talks under the CPNEWWIN:child^toolbar=1,location=1,directories=0,status=1,menubar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1@http://www.state.gov/g/oes/climate| onmouseover=" return self.status='http://www.state.gov/g/oes/climate'; " onmouseout=" return self.status=''; " href="javascript:HandleLink('cpe_0_0','CPNEWWIN:child^toolbar=1,location=1,directories=0,status=1,menubar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1@http://www.state.gov/g/oes/climate');">climate change issue. The U.S. signed the original U.N. Framework and Convention on Climate Change but didn't ratify the subsequent treaty.
When the Bush Administration later withdrew from Kyoto altogether, they argued that the treaty would hurt the U.S. economy. The Administration also said the treaty failed to require industrial developing nations, such as China and India, to comply with binding curbs on emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.
Watson says any new framework must address greenhouse gas emissions "in a way that would be both environmentally effective and economic sustainable."
The United States favors voluntary commitments over binding ones to curb greenhouse gas emissions. ,CPNEWWIN:child^toolbar=1,location=1,directories=0,status=1,menubar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1@http://www.wri.org/#| onmouseover=" return self.status='http://www.wri.org/#'; " onmouseout=" return self.status=''; " href="javascript:HandleLink('cpe_0_0','CPNEWWIN:child^toolbar=1,location=1,directories=0,status=1,menubar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1@http://www.wri.org/#');">World Resources Institute,APIMAGE style="DIRECTION: ltr" width=225 align=left>
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