The international climate change summit in Bali has ended with no new plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. By the end of the two-week summit, negotiators could only agree to a framework for negotiating a climate change pact over the next two years. The United States initially refused to even sign the Bali road map but backed down under intense pressure. The Bush administration was widely criticized throughout the Bali talks for opposing mandatory emissions cuts for developed countries. Friends of the Earth accused ministers from some industrialized countries of letting down the people of the world.

Shane Rattenbury of Greenpeace: “Well, look, this afternoon we’ve seen the climate change talks brought back from the brink of collapse. Unfortunately the final deal does lack the substance that we would have hoped to see here.”

United Nations Climate Chief Yvo de Boer said some accomplishments were made in Bali.

Yvo de Boer: “And also we’ve taken important decisions on carbon capture and storage, to look at technical legal policy and financial aspects related to carbon capture and storage. And that, I think, is a critical advance for countries like China and India that will continue to use coal going into the future, but also offers a prospect for oil-producing nations to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”