Bangkok Climate Change TalksU.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon opened the first formal talks in the drawn out process of drawing up the successor to the 1997 Kyoto climate change pact, telling attendees “the world is waiting for a solution that is long-term and economically viable.” Speaking on Monday in a video address to the 1,000 delegates from 190 nations, the Secretary General was openly optimistic for the at the U.N. headquarters in Thailand.

The week-long meeting is the result of a rare occurrence between nations during the 2007 meeting in Bali, where they decided to start negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protocol. As it stands, the Kyoto agreement only binds 37 wealthy nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5% from 1990 levels by 2012. Any new agreement will aim to hold more countries accountable, while also setting the stage for developing nations.

U.N. climate experts are pushing to impose curbs on all nations, though there is quite a bit of disagreement about how to share the burden between developing and developed nations, like we see in the examples of China, India and the United States.

Although no major policy decisions are expected from this meeting, the real goal is to establish a timetable for further discussions, which will finish with a U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (C4, if you will) near the end of 2009.
That said, environmental groups are paying close attention to this meeting, looking for preliminary signs of continued commitment from the nations currently committed to the Kyoto Protocol, and developing nations that are in the midst of modernizing their infrastructure.

Like all U.N. negotiations, these talks are expected to be long and tortuous. However, a series of climate change reports from last year emphasized the need to curb and combat global warming.

One in particular said it was more than 90% likely that our activities are to blame for the changes in the weather system, which yields the potential for more droughts, severe storms, and glacial melt.

Punishing the New Players

Another big issue to be discussed is the ongoing reluctance of large developing nations, in this case China and India, to agree on measures that might curb their rapid industrialization.

Considering how Western nations have gleefully poisoned the planet since medieval times, one can certainly appreciate the reasoning behind these nations’ policies, but effective governance of carbon emissions and the development of atmospheric scrubbing mechanisms is crucial to the long-term viability of the Earth. It would be nice if there was some kind of reward for developing cleaner technologies or, baring that, a way to effectively scrub the carbon and other less-desirable elements from the atmosphere and eject them into the Sun.

What About America?

Negotiations are also expected to stagnate when dealing with the United States, as they’re the only developed nation that has not signed on to the 11 year old Kyoto Protocol. That said, American President George W. Bush is expected to leave Washington in January 2009, so this could improve matters.

It’s been seven years since Bush tossed the Kyoto agreement out the window, justifying his actions with a statement about how such limitations would hurt the American economy and was unfairly biased towards developing nations. There’s no doubt that the Kyoto Protocol would have hurt the interests of big business in the U.S., but some type of emissions cap could have been presented as a “conciliatory measure.”

Regardless of past stances, the American government has since changed their stance, saying it would accept emissions targets if other large nations do the same.

Greater Support Necessary

The fact that representatives from 190 nations can meet and discuss some of the most important questions facing the near-future of mankind is a great sign of international cooperation and, though it will be difficult in some cases, this is showing the world that global warming is something that the people of Earth want to combat. Once an agreement can be made regarding emissions, targets and caps, then we can begin to pressure our governments to ensure these targets are met or exceeded.

Fixing the world should be everyone’s responsibility.