What's love got to do with it

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As we reported on Sunday, Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Change Convention, has been urging countries to focus on process not substance. He wants countries to focus on ‘tools and instruments' here at Bali, and leave tough talk about targets for a later meeting.

‘A marriage contract is the culmination of a love affair,' he says, ‘not the topic of discussion on the first date.'

Speaking for Climate Action Network Europe today, Matthias Dowe argued that we have moved far beyond the flush of first love. 'These parties have been dating for over fifteen years.'

Like the Europeans, the NGOs believe that ‘a process, even if it has a clear end date, needs substance if we are to conclude a coherent agreement on the future of an international climate regime.'

That means sticking to the approach recommended by an ‘ad hoc working group' that was set up in 2005 to look at long-term climate stabilisation.

At its fourth meeting, in Vienna in July, the group underlined the need for ‘urgency' in addressing climate change and gave some idea of what that might look like. According to its final report:

The group referred to 25-40 percent cuts for developed countries ‘as a group' on 1990 emissions levels by 2020. It also noted concerns that even such stringent cuts might not be enough to save some small islands.

The NGOs want all this to be included in the roadmap, plus a clear indication that countries are committed to agreeing a ‘legally binding instrument' within two years following Bali.

Dowe recognises how tough this will be for the US, which is currently around 16 percent over 1990 levels:

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