In Bali: China delegation animated, India delegation moribund as climate change talks progress

In Bali, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change said ‘”I haven’t heard India being very strong in the forefront of discussions (here at Bali). But they signed up with everyone else in support of negotiations’ for the next two years to address climate change.”

The official added that China is being more aggressive in demonstrating its emission reduction achievements and making new proposals to address climate change, while the Indian delegation was being silent. India has previously indicated that its national priority was poverty alleviation, not climate control.

India and China have previously stated that they cannot afford, as developing nations, to take on any emissions reduction goals; developed nations, led by Japan and Canada, have been pressing for India and China to assume a share of the burden.

Negotiations are taking place in Bali as nations seek a means to extend the Kyoto Treaty. A weakness of Kyoto was that the United States did not ratify the treaty, while India and China were exempted from its provisions. Only Russia and Japan, among the top five polluters, were bound by the treaty.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

Australia ratifies Kyoto Treaty as Bali conference opens; US now the lone holdout

Minutes after taking the oath of office as Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd signed documents ratifying the Kyoto Treaty on behalf of Australia. The United States is now the only major industrial ...

US lobbies to remove strict 2020 emissions targets from Bali Roadmap at the UN Climate Change Conference

In Bali, the US is attempting to remove strict 2020 emissions targets from the draft text of the Bali roadmap. The draft text calls for rich nations to reduce emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020, wi...

US booed, jeered by collective Bali congress in extraordinary diplomatic showdown: 60 second demonstration prompts US switch of position

This story comes from from an eyewitness at the UN Conference on Climate Change, detailing the extraordinary uproar by the international delegations that prompted the US to discontinue its holdout aga...

Today in Biofuels: US House passes landmark Energy bill with 36 billion gallon ethanol mandate, White House says it will veto; South Africa unveils biofuels policy, excludes corn; China outlines incentives for non-food biofuel feedstocks

Top Story:In Washington, the US House of Representatives passed its energy bill 235-181, largely on party lines. The White House called the bill "misguided" and said that President Bush would veto it....

UN Climate Change Conference opens in Bali: delegates hope to frame successor to Kyoto Treaty

The UN Conference on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia opens today. Participants at the ten day long conference hope to frame a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Accord, which expires in 2012. The lea...

Al Gore says US to blame for “obstructing progress” in Bali, to thunderous applause

As the UN Conference on Climate Change in Bali approached its final day, signing of the Bali Roadmap document was imperiled by a deadlock over the inclusion of emission reduction targets in the docume...