JURIST - Paper Chase: UN climate conference pledges new global warming pact by 2009

[JURIST] Participants in the United Nations Climate Change Conference [official website] agreed in Bali, Indonesia Saturday to a timetable for negotiating a new international treaty on global warming [EPA materials; JURIST news archive]. Under the "Bali Roadmap" [PDF text; press release, PDF], the 187 participating nations pledged to a negotiate a new agreement to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol [text; JURIST news archive] by 2009:

The decision includes a clear agenda for the key issues to be negotiated up to 2009. These are: action for adapting to the negative consequences of climate change, such as droughts and floods; ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; ways to widely deploy climate-friendly technologies and financing both adaptation and mitigation measures.

Concluding negotiations in 2009 will ensure that the new deal can enter into force by 2013, following the expiry of the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol.

The United States, which has not signed the Kyoto Protocol, agreed to the Roadmap after initial disagreement with the document's wording.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon applauded the agreement [statement; UN News report] Saturday, saying that he "believes that the Bali Roadmap that has been agreed is a pivotal first step toward an agreement that can address the threat of climate change, the defining challenge of our time." AP has more.