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.  Read the rest of this post...

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 Quote:Negotiators at the UN climate summit in Bali have adjourned talks, with the UN senior climate official saying they were "on the brink" of a deal.  Read the rest of this post...

A late night update from the UN climate conference, where the US has thrown a hand grenade into the talks on the Bali roadmap. It's close to 1am and the negotiators are still arguing about two main issues:  Read the rest of this post...

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.  Read the rest of this post...

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).  Read the rest of this post...

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.  Read the rest of this post...

When the UN debates the big global issues, you can always trust the United States to be in the thick of the action. Five years ago, I was in Johannesburg, blogging the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Then the US took on all comers over toilets. For all sorts of reasons (some of which were, in fact, laudable), it held out against a target for getting basic sanitation to more poor people.  Read the rest of this post...

So we're off. Ten thousand or so delegates are beginning to struggle through accreditation. Electricians are rushing to finish wiring up the convention centre. And the vanguard of an army of a thousand or so journalists have set up their laptops in the tent that will be their home for duration of the Bali meeting.

A new deal on climate-change is urgent. Leadership is the key