south africa

It took up only a few innocuous words in the unofficial record of yesterday's proceedings. Delegates here in Bali had agreed to ‘prepare options for consideration by the ministers, focusing on the form, substantive scope and timeframe of the process and its budgetary implications.'

Doesn't sound like much, but according to Yvo de Boer, Executive General of the UNFCCC, it's something of a triumph and one that, for a while, it seemed that Saudi Arabia would block.

The ‘contact group' will allow delegates to take negotiations about future options out of the full plenary and should allow them to prepare a menu of possible solutions for Ministers to sign up to when they arrive next week.