Another Roadmap

Nice to know that the majority opinion prevailed. Exerting sufficient pressure, including that of public naming-and-shaming to ensure that recalcitrant hold-backs would buy into the general consensus. The result being, ladies and gentlemen of the world, passionate environmentalists and third-world weather targets - we have a victory of sorts; a collective agreement at the very least.

And heaven knows, we do need something of that order to combat the atmospheric threats we are facing.

On the face of it, it most certainly does seem unfair to impose the same restraints on developing countries with respect to carbon emissions, as that required of developed countries. Pity we cannot pick and choose which developing countries to excuse. On the basis of the undeniable fact that when we speak of global economically-emerging giants like India and China, and their immense populations, and the impact worldwide of their surging economies, perhaps they might be treated differently?

At the very least, on the same level as developed countries, perhaps? The horrendously storied emissions coming out of China, literally blackening its environment and the lungs of its people, do have their impact thanks to prevailing winds, much further afield, even entering the airspace of North America. But because there are these stark divisions, the polarising views of developed and developing, it's all-inclusive.

And the Bali roadmap was born, with all attendees to the United Nations climate change signing on; reluctant signees like the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, most markedly. In the final analysis, this can only be a good thing. In that all countries are recognizing the plight that all countries - particularly those developing countries unable to themselves afford remediation measures, and whose geographies are in particularly climate-sensitive areas -
will benefit through co-operation.

The pain that will be felt by developed countries in searching for sound new methods whose adoption may assist in adapting to the new requirements for lowering carbon emissions is, in any event, offset by the pain deeply felt by geographically vulnerable, poorer countries. In the end, all the hang-back countries, unwilling to sacrifice their growth potential to assist other countries in both economic advancement and adaptation to a changing world, heeded UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's injunction.

"Seize the moment, this moment, for the good of all humanity."

So, we're signed on for good, not for ill we hope, to a framework for cuts in global emissions, clean technology transfers, the reduction of forest degradation through deforestation, and working toward aid adaptation for developing countries geographically positioned to suffer through droughts and rising sea levels.

Here's to the future and its unknowns.