Bali Buffoonery
BALI BUFFOONERY....I realize that diplomacy and sausage making aren't always pretty, but the latest "compromise" at the Bali climate talks is about as ridiculous as anything I've seen in a long time:
Talks had been deadlocked all week by U.S. insistence on the removal of a passage in the document's preamble mandating that industrialized countries reduce their emissions 25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020.Italics mine. Why not just put the numbers in hexadecimal and then rejoice at all the progress we've made?....A compromise proposed by Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar makes the controversial targets footnotes to the preamble, a move that seems to have satisfied both sides.
"This is a compromise. We can live with this," said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
The U.S. also seemed pleased. "We can live with the preamble," said chief U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson.