The Bali Conference on Climate Change and a One Paragraph Assessment. (December 19, 2007)

Nature's Olive Heffernan wrote up the Bali conference on Climate change in about 600 words but his final paragraph comes close to really saying what has to be said:

"Bali has delivered what it needed to do," says Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the UN convention on climate change, calling the agreement "ambitious, transparent, and flexible". Perhaps most importantly, it has succeeded in bringing what may still be the world's largest emitter [the United States] back to the table. But whether the 'flexibility' that was required will ultimately provide a means of manoeuvring out of real emissions reductions remains to be seen.