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After 12 days of insistences, demands, accusations and a hypocritically ridiculous carbon footprint, the Bali global warming conference has wound down with the head diplomat, Yvo de Boer, crumbling in an emotional breakdown.

From the Daily Mail.

But after 12 exhausting days of trying to reach a worldwide agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it was suddenly all too much for Yvo de Boer.

As the 200-nation Bali conference wrangled over a minor procedural matter, the Dutch diplomat in charge of the talks burst into tears and had to be led away by colleagues.

The conference began with the three main players, China, The European Union and The U.S. pointing fingers.

Officials from China, which feels Western countries should do more to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, accused UN negotiators of ignoring conference protocol.

The European Union went to the conference demanding that industrialised nations commit to cuts in CO2 emissions of 25-40 per cent by 2020, a stance which was strongly opposed by the US, Canada and Japan.

America’s representatives had also been jeered for insisting on firmer commitments from developing countries –despite President Bush’s refusal to sign up to the previous targets laid down in the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.

Surely, we are all adults here and we can get past our differences and put together a concrete plan to solve the problem of global warming, right? Wrong.

In the end, a compromise was reached with a text that did not mention specific targets but acknowledged that “deep cuts in global emissions will be required”.

The resulting treaty, known as the “Bali road map”, sets in motion a two-year process of negotiations designed to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

No specific targets! Road Map!! Two year process of negotiations!!??

That’s what they accomplished in Bali. All of these diplomats, scientists and activists flew in and lived it up on the planets environmental dime to come up with a road map. They figured out that “deep cuts in global emissions will be required”. Didn’t they see Al Gore’s slide show and big rock concert? I was under the impression that our consciousness had already been raised.

So, they all got back on the jets and flew home. But, have hope, they aren’t giving up on the notion of saving us from ourselves.

Under the deal, a new pact will be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen in 2009.

2009? Can we wait that long? I thought the earth was warming at an alarming rate. That it was happening much faster than we originally thought.

Maybe it’s not so serious. That’s reassuring. We’ll wait a couple years, everybody flies to Copenhagen, sets up at a luxury hotel; then what? What’s going to be different? How do we get past the “road map” stage?

By then, members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – the organisation of which de Boer is executive secretary – should have agreed on a comprehensive plan involving wealthy and developing nations.

Rest assured then, the U.N. and the weeping diplomat in charge, are on the case and they “should have” a plan for a plan for us in a couple of years.