Undiplomatic truth

"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," Al Gore told Bali this evening, to ecstatic applause, putting the blame for any failure to reach agreement firmly in the Bush administration's court.

But he told the people who applauded his words they had a choice. They could get cross with America, and risk derailing the Bali agreement, or they could skirt around the country, leaving a ‘blank space' in the Bali roadmap for a new administration to fill in.

Instead of holding out for concrete "targets and timetables" to be kept in the Bali declaration, Gore advised, it would be best to bank gains that had been made on adaptation, technology transfer, and deforestation.

"If I could snap my fingers and change the position of the United States of America, and of some other countries, and make it instantly easier to move forward with targets and timetables included in the language you approve here, I would do so in an instant," he said.

"But if we look realistically at the situation that confronts us, then wisdom would call for moving forward in spite of that obstacle."

I take that as a signal that the Europeans will beat a retreat on their more ambitious demands over the course of the night, but we will know more about that in the next couple of hours I expect.

Gore also made what seems, on the face of it, an entirely unrealistic call. Slow down in Bali if necessary, he said. But speed up the process after a deal is agreed in Copenhagen, aiming for full implementation of the new treaty by 2010.

That would give countries only a year for ratification. Kyoto, in comparison, took five years to take effect, the time it took for sufficient countries to pass it into law. Three years for implementation has always looked like a minimum, but perhaps the former Veep knows something that we don't.