UN's Two-Week Climate Change Conference Begins in Bali

Representatives from nearly 190 countries are slated to attend the United Nations (UN) climate change summit that was kicked-off today in Bali, Indonesia.  The main goal is to decide how to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after the Kyoto Protocol targets expire in 2012.

Rachmat Witoelar, the Indonesian environment minister who was named president of the conference, pledged to do his best to deliver a deal.  "Climate protection must form an integral part of sustainable economic development, and it is critical that we act and we act now," he said.

With the United States still unwilling to agree to mandatory emissions reductions, I am curious to see what will be the outcome of this two-week summit on climate change.  The American position suffered a blow Monday when the new Australian prime minister signed papers to ratify the Kyoto Protocol climate pact. The move leaves the U.S. the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases as the sole industrial power not to have joined.