Bali roadmap

After the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference on the island Bali in Indonesia in December, 2007, the participating nations adopted the Bali Roadmap (also known as the Bali Action Plan) as a two-year process to finalizing a binding agreement in 2009 in Denmark.

Cutting emissions

The nations acknowledge that evidence for global warming is unequivocal, and that humans must reduce emissions to reduce the risks of "severe climate change impacts". There was a strong consensus for updated changes for both developed and developing countries. Although there were not specific numbers agreed upon in order to cut emissions, many countries agreed that there was a need for "deep cuts in global emissions" and that "developed country emissions must fall 10-40% by 2020".

Charges of hypocrisy

The December 2007 global warming conference in Bali contributed to global warming in the following ways:

* A November 25, 2007 article in Times Online reported that it was estimated that that year's conference would release the equivalent of 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

* A December 18, 2007 article in the Sydney Morning Herald revealed new information that brought this total even higher. According to the article, a special custom air conditioning system was installed specifically for the conference. The air conditioning system used hydrochlorofluorocarbons, an outdated refrigerant gas that is especially bad for the problem of global warming. According to the article, the air conditioning used during the conference released the equivalent of 48,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The article stated, "... the refrigerant is a potent greenhouse gas, with each kilogram at least as damaging as 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Investigators at the Balinese resort complex at Nusa Dua counted 700 cylinders of the gas, each of them weighing 13.5 kilograms, and the system was visibly leaking."

Forests

The nations pledge "policy approaches and positive incentives" to protect forests.

Adaptation

The nations opt for enhanced co-operation to "support urgent implementation" of measures to protect poorer countries against climate change impacts.

Technology transfer

The nations will consider how to facilitate the transfer of clean technologies from industrialised nations to the developing countries.

Timescales

Work on the Bali roadmap will begin as soon as possible. Four major UNFCCC meetings to implement the Bali Roadmap are planned for 2008, with the first to be held in either March or April and the second in June, with the third in either August or September followed by a major meeting in Poznan, Poland in December 2008. The negotiations process is scheduled to conclude in 2009 at a major summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.