Viva Papúa Nueva Guinea

Oh, I LOVE killer blows.

Especially when they come from a little country in the Boonies:

The killer blow came from the Harvard-educated representative of Papua New Guinea, Kevin Conrad, who used Mr Connaughton's diplomatic gaffe of earlier in the week to humiliate the Americans (Mr Connaughton had said: "We will lead. We will continue to lead but leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow.").

Mr Conrad said, to applause: "If you are not willing to lead, then get out of the way."

Miss Dobriansky finally pressed her button to speak again and said: "We will go forward and join the consensus."

After cheers and diplomatic congratulations, the president of the conference assessed that "we are very, very close", then banged his gavel down on India's proposal to mark that a consensus had been achieved.Mr de Boer said later that he saw the mood in the conference "suddenly explode" after inspirational speeches by the Indonesian president, who has invested a large amount of political capital in the Bali conference, and the UN secretary general.

He added: "Almost by electrolysis that refocused the delegates with a sense of urgency. It enabled people to see minor points as minor problems."

The disagreement that bedevilled the past two weeks between the United States and the EU was resolved in the course of Friday night with a new draft road map which said that "deep cuts" in greenhouse gas emissions will be required after 2012.

The Telegraph 15/12/07

The move was hailed by environment secretary, Hilary Benn, as "an historic breakthrough".

Ministers from around 180 countries were united in accepting the agenda for a global emissions cuts agreement to launch negotiations for a post-2012 agreement to tackle climate change.

Consensus for the road map followed a dramatic U-turn by the US, which had threatened to block the deal at the 11th hour and been booed by other countries.

It dropped its opposition to poorer countries' calls for technological and financial help to combat the issue.

Applause

The sudden reversal by the US in the marathon talks which saw the country duelling with European envoys was met with rousing applause.

[...]

Campaigning groups said the deal had been stripped of important targets and hit out at the US's "wrecking policy".

Keith Allott, Head of Climate Change at WWF UK, said:

"We are not at all pleased.

"We were looking for a road map with a destination."

But he praised the talks having been brought back from the brink of collapse, with the alliance of the G77 developing countries with the EU.

The Guardian 15/12/07