The Bali Road Map

Abstract

The Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol met in Bali in December 2007.1 After some high-stakes poker about emission reduction frameworks and the role of emerging economies, participants settled on a road map for negotiating a new climate agreement by the end of 2009. The Bali meeting also managed to achieve progress on a number of important issues relating to the Adaptation Fund, avoidance of deforestation through REDD, technology transfer, and CDM. Conference side events show-cased emerging business opportunities in global carbon markets and provided a forum for countries to share experiences with national policies that have been put in place to meet Kyoto Protocol targets. Bali no doubt advanced international climate negotiations one step further, but it also highlighted the great challenges facing negotiators in the coming 20 months.2 This article takes stock of the current status of climate negotiations and discusses key issues likely to shape future talks.