Chris Littlecott's blog

The agreement reached in Bali on Saturday wasn't an end point , but the start of a process. There now follows at least another two years of intense negotiations to pull together an effective global climate deal.

Inevitably this means that there will now be a period of soothsaying commentary and interpretation before the true importance of the Bali agreement begins to be understood and acted on.

And already this coming week will see the start of attempts to tease out a more accurate understanding of what went on in Bali and where it is leading.

Following below are details of two events that Global Deal has interest in - unfortunately both on Tuesday 18th December.

BBC News 24 has just announced on air that a short draft agreement has been issued in Bali. Ban Ki Moon is flying back in to Bali to participate in the final push.

They hope to speak to Roger Harrabin in Bali shortly... And here he is, before I can even hit publish:

'Urgent language but no numbers' is the headline.

It seems that the confusion in Bali is still not yet over, not even for the BBC's news gathering resources.

Just over an hour ago, the Bali negotiations were the first item on the Radio 5 Live news bulletin, for what seems like the first time this week. They quoted UK Environment Minister Hilary Benn as saying that a deal had still not been reached.

Yet over on the BBC website, the latest news on their Bali section is that

What should we call NGO blogs? Given how they are increasingly appearing in a new space beyond the traditional media, I wonder whether we need a new term for activist-reporter-bloggers. How about blongos? Or blongeurs?

Whatever we call them, one thing is for sure - blogging is providing an effective means of communicating the hopes and frustrations of frontline lobbyists back to memberships and activists. It's still a minority pursuit at present - look through the long list of accredited NGOs and you'll find just a handful trying to connect beyond the boundaries of the conference compound. But that will surely change over the next 2 years of climate activism.

Here's a future essay topic in the making. ‘Compare and contrast the impact of internet activism and mass demonstrations on the 2007 Bali climate talks'.

We'll soon have a chance to do just that, as the innovative global campaigning organisation Avaaz has launched an ‘emergency global petition' which aims to collect 100,000 signatures before Friday.

They state:

During his hectic blogging schedule last week, David Steven somehow found time to post an in depth analysis of some of the recent criticisms of the Kyoto Protocol.

He ended his analysis with a review of the ‘time to ditch Kyoto' argument of Gwyn Prins and Steve Rayner, particularly their central big idea of putting ‘public investment in energy R&D on a wartime footing'.

David's conclusion was that

[quote]Now spending that sort of money may well be a reasonable response. It should even buy some compelling new technologies (though how wisely governments would invest it is a moot point).

When the going gets tough, the tough get... email alerts.

We'll shortly be sending out our first bulletin to Global Deal subscribers, at 6am Bali time.

This will provide the perfect way to start the day: one handy email with links to all of David's posts from Bali this past week, plus our growing collection of in-depth articles and global reaction.

Email alerts will then continue on a daily basis throughout the rest of the Bali conference. They'll provide the latest insider news to the outside world, plus a cut out and keep reminder of the big picture for all those sleep-deprived negotiators trapped inside the Bali bubble.

Let's see then. Are there any other bloggers out there trying to stick together the Bali-shaped parts of the climate change jigsaw puzzle?

A quick search of top blogosphere tool the truth laid bear shows that Monday 3rd December saw a peak of 26 posts from around the world featuring the terms Bali, UN, and Climate.

Earlier this week, I caught up with Peter Goldmark, Program Director for Climate & Air at US NGO Environmental Defense.

I asked him what he thought would be the major cleavage points of the Bali negotiations. This is Peter's headline analysis:

The Tomorrow's Europe project is supported by 22 research institutes, thinktanks and non-governmental organisations from across Europe. Their interests span the themes of public affairs, foreign policy, European integration and more. So what exactly do they see as the value of deliberative polling? Chris Littlecott here provides a perspective from the environmental organisation E3G, one of the Tomorrow's Europe partners. The European Union is in a difficult position. It has never been more needed, but does it have the ability to act?