11WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG DECEMBER 24, 2007

THE CLIMATE-CHANGE AGREEMENT reached on Dec. 15 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, represents a com-

promise between what the European Union hoped for and what the U.S. aimed for.

The 187 countries represented in Bali agreed to meet frequently during the next two years to negotiate an accord to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012. This was a concession on the part of the U.S. because for years before the meeting it had opposed formal talks on a successor to the protocol. The U.S. is the only major developed country that has not ratified the treaty.

Another source of contention during the negotia-tions was the need for specific emissions targets. The EU wanted the agreement to set a target for devel-oped countries of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 25–40% below 1990 levels by 2020. The U.S., Canada, and Japan opposed any concrete numerical targets. The final agreement reflects the U.S. position, but the 25–40% target is in a preamble footnote.

A third point of disagreement concerned the emis-sions commitments required of developing countries. Until the last few hours of talks, the U.S. insisted that developing countries make strong commitments to control their emissions growth. But in the face of ac-rimonious opposition—especially from Papua New

Guinea delegate Kevin Conrad, who told the U.S., “Lead, follow, or get out of the way”—the U.S. finally backed down. The U.S. won one concession, however. The developing countries agreed to “consider” controlling emissions.

A high point was the Dec. 13 speech by for-mer vice president Al Gore, who had received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, three days earlier. “My own country, the U.S., is principally responsible for obstructing prog-ress here in Bali, but the U.S. is not the only one who can take steps to ensure that we move forward from Bali with progress,” he said to cheers from the audience. “You can feel anger and frustration and direct it at the U.S., or you can decide to do all of the difficult work that needs to be done. We must leave here with a strong mandate.”

After the meeting, U.S. Senior Climate Ne-gotiator Harlan L. Watson explained the U.S. position on numerical targets: “We didn’t want a predetermined outcome for the upcoming talks on a successor to the Kyoto protocol.” The U.S. agreed to take part in the Bali negotiations, he said, because the science has become more convincing and the political climate in the U.S. has shifted.

According to David Doniger, policy director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Bali meeting opened the door “to ne-gotiate binding obligations for both developed and developing countries.” In Bali, he said, “China, Brazil, South Africa, and other big developing countries showed unprecedented willingness to start negotiat-ing real actions to slow and reverse their own growing emissions.”—BETTE HILEMAN

German Chancellor Angela

Merkel, who has a doctor-

ate in theoretical chemistry,

recently joined Nobel Laure-

ate Ahmed Zewail (left) in

celebrating the 75th birthday

of Sir John Meurig Thomas

(right) at a gala dinner at Pe-

terhouse College, part of the

University of Cambridge.

Almost 200 delegates from

as far away as China, Japan,

Australia, and the U.S. came

in December to the two-day

birthday symposium entitled

“Turning Points in Solid-

State, Materials, and Surface

Science.” Thomas, who was

knighted in 1991 by Queen

Elizabeth II for “services to

chemistry and the populariza-

tion of science,” has authored

more than 950 scientific

articles.

The chancellor came to the

symposium’s closing string

quartet concert and gala din-

ner with her husband, Joachim

Sauer, a theoretical chemist at

Humboldt University, in Berlin.

Having grown up in the former

East Germany, Merkel was

inspired to move from science

into politics after the fall of

the Berlin Wall in 1989 to help

East Germany develop into a

democratic society, she told

C&EN.—SARAH EVERTS

CELEBRATION German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins festivities for Sir John Meurig Thomas

NEWS OF THE WEEK

BALI COMPROMISE

UN CONFERENCE: U.S. concessions allow agreement on continuing

climate-change talks

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