Introduction: a “shared vision”?

In late 2007, the world sighed in relief after two grueling weeks of international climate negotiations that resulted in an upbeat-sounding ‘Bali Roadmap.’ The Roadmap identified a series of steps that might be taken to break the North–South impasse and solve the global climate crisis. In particular, a process under an Ad Hoc Working Group for Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) was tasked with breaking the deadlock over who should act in cleaning up the atmosphere, and how. The answer, according to the Roadmap, was that developed and developing countries would move forward with “a shared vision for long-term cooperative action, including a long-term global goal for emissions reductions, to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention [avoiding dangerous climate change].”

However, as negotiations moved on to Bonn, Accra, and Poznan in 2008, nearly every word of the Bali Action Plan was contested. In the run-up to the 14th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP14) in Poznan, Poland, in December, 2008, 76 Parties submitted “Ideas and Proposals” to the Working Group. China asserted that developed countries would need to “tak[e] the lead in reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases, while ensuring development rights and spaces for developing countries.” Only with such a mid-term target being clearly determined, they argued, is it meaningful to talk about any long-term goals for emission reductions (UNFCCC, 2008b).