Dramatic US reversal at Bali prompted by “collective global groan”, “full-throated expression of rage and anger”, “booing and jeering” by other delegations

Reports continue to flow out of Washington and Bali regarding the United States’ dramatic reversal on emission targets, that set the stage for an announcement that the nations had agreed to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Treaty by 2009. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D- CA), chairwoman of the Senate Environment Committee, said “In Bali, the president tried to treat the world the way he treats Congress — ‘my way or the highway. The difference is that in Congress he has supporters but in Bali he had no supporters.”

From an eyewitness at Bali came a dramatic report of the climatic scene: “Then occurred one of the most remarkable sounds that has perhaps ever been heard in the annals of international diplomacy — like a collective global groan … a murmer, then increasing in volume to a full-throated expression of rage and anger and booing and jeering, lasting for a full minute, so that finally the Minister had to call the meeting back to order.”

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