Bali climate conference - world view ...
Read the articles from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Australia's role in the Bali discussions rates no mention at all.
For the other view from someone whom you'd think was a founding member of the KRudd fan club see - Rudd shines on global stage.
Much is made of the agreement forged between Australia and Indonesia on climate change. Indonesia is small fry compared to China - you'd think Rudd would have used his Mandarin skills to get China to agree to emission cuts. Also, no word on Australia getting Indonesia to deal with deforestation ...
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 9:59 AM
1 Comments:
Excerpt from Daily Telegraph:
Garrett is in ... er ... a meeting
17 December 2007
Peter Garrett is about a metre taller than me and often speaks softly for a man who used to belt out tunes on the rock stage.
So when we bumped into each other at a drinks function at the climate change conference in Bali I had to stretch myself to hear him amid the din of chatter, putting my neck at roughly a 90 degree angle.
As we talked I began to notice the odd dig from an elbow in my ribs and the occasional unseemly slash at my ankles by pointed shoes.
I lowered my eyes to find Garrett and myself surrounded by a largish clutch of people whose forced smiles indicated their belief that the 90 seconds I had gained with the Environment Minister had actually been their 90 seconds and would I please push off and give them a turn.
Garrett was immensely popular and instantly recognisable at the conference, certainly within the hippie-tendency groups where his music was well known, but also among diplomats interested in where the new Labor Government was going.
Not everyone considered him a household name.
The head of the European Union delegation, Stavros Dimas, told reporters he had told an Australian delegate that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had missed an opportunity to speak out in favour of tough energy consumption cuts.
Asked who the person had been the balding European said he didn't know. But he was "tall with as much hair as I have or even less".
Kevin Rudd has used the UN climate change conference on the Indonesian resort island of Bali over the past week to show off five of his ministers, and his Government in general, to the region and the broader international community.
It was a conference of convenience. Australia was involved in the excruciating negotiations on a post-Kyoto agreement to be decided in 2009 in Copenhagen, of course.
But Rudd also used the gathering to make first-time contacts with regional leaders, particularly Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono, who seemed more than pleased to help.
Treasurer Wayne Swan was delighted to find himself introduced second, after the Indonesian host, at a meeting of finance ministers in Bali. It was sign of high rank, remarkable for a bloke who by that stage had been a minister for less than a week.
There was no reason for the presence on Bali of Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, except for the opportunity to meet his regional peers.
Smith did have a role, however, in helping renew ties with Papua-New Guinea which had been shut down at a ministerial level by a spat the previous foreign minister Alexander Downer had with Sir Michael Somare.
PNG usually has had close personal ties with the Australian prime minister, but John Howard was the exception. Maybe that will change between Rudd and Somare, whom he calls The Chief.
There were even less compelling reasons for Trade Minister Simon Crean turning up for a few days on Bali. Again, it was a good opportunity to get a bit of name recognition spread through the region.
The climate conference also was the stage for Rudd to make small but telling changes in Australia's international diplomatic direction by steering closer to Asia.
He made this clear enough by ratifying Kyoto in the first place, something the US continues to refuse to do.
But he then used his address to the conference - the second national leader to speak after the host president - to make it known he would be siding with the region to insist the US be a party to the new Kyoto coming into force after 2012.
The climate change conference was a megaphone through which Rudd announced another movement in Australian property.
The shift closer to our Asian neighbours and slightly away from the all-Anglo priority of the US could not have been hurt by giving the job of Australian negotiator to Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, a young woman of Chinese extraction.
Rudd clearly felt his job was done after meeting the leaders we wanted to - plus Al Gore.
And through it all was Peter Garrett. He had no direct involvement in the negotiations and had to defer to Wong when comment was sought on progress. But Garrett was miffed at suggestions he had no job.
He did have a string of meetings and accompanied Rudd to the talks with Al Gore and other senior or well-known figures, and visiting organisations.
As he said: "I've been busy".
9:38 AM, December 17, 2007
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