Bali - Despite Concessions, World Surrenders to Bush Regime?

European politicians are doing their best to spin the shoddy "compromise" (for which read capitulation) agreement at Bali as a great global step forward and a victory for common sense. The supine BBC (Brown Broadcasting Corporation?) plays ball by presenting the US "U turn" on what was needed from and for developing countries as the main story. This is presented as the pay-off for kicking any binding targets for the US itself at least two years into the future (presumably in the faint hope of awaiting the election of an administration more amenable to actually doing anything that begins to have an impact on the massive problem)
So now we have another two years of negotiation leading up to the UN Climate Conference of 2009 in Denmark, when all the best scientific opinion tells us drastic action is needed now. This is a significant victory for the ruling class of the US and its Canadian and Japanese partners in crime.
Of course, moves to halt deforestation, and to transfer cleaner and renewable technologies to developing countries are very welcome and desperately needed, but without significant action by the big emitters in the short term these moves are not enough.
At least the French are being a little less triumphalist about the deal -

France's Deputy Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet acknowledged the deal amounted to far less than the EU had wanted.

But, she told the AFP news agency: "The public can understand that we brought the United States into the negotiations.

"It's a framework that is quite weak but which still moves forward."

Much of the agreement again rests on market mechanisms such as carbon trading which have been so weak in achieving results so far and in some cases amount to a license to pollute based on speculative assessments of what might have happened without the trade.

Friends of The Earth International response here.

Greenpeace International report here.