Words do matter

Some interesting excerpts from the coverage this morning of the Bali environmental talks, which is leading all the news sites. Same story, some pretty different approaches:

Thomas Fuller and Andrew C. Revkin in the NYTimes, Timetable Is Set to Revive Climate Treaty: Delegates from nearly 190 countries wrapped up two weeks of intense and at times emotional talks here on Saturday with a two-year timetable for reviving an ailing, aging climate treaty.

The deal came after the United States, facing sharp verbal attacks in a final open-door negotiating session, reversed its opposition to a last-minute amendment by India.

"We've listened very closely to many of our colleagues here during these two weeks, but especially to what has been said in this hall today," Paula Dobriansky, who led the American delegation, told the other assembled delegates. "We will go forward and join consensus." ...

The mood here shifted after a speech Thursday by Al Gore, the former United States vice president who shared the Nobel Peace Prize this year for helping to alert the world to the danger of global warming.

After declaring that the United States was "principally responsible for obstructing progress" in Bali, he urged delegates to agree to an open-ended deal that could be enhanced after Mr. Bush left office in January 2009.

"Over the next two years the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now," Mr. Gore said to loud applause. "You must anticipate that."

Wow, it's rare that an American of Gore's stature publicly says something like that at a negotiating session. It used to be politics stopped at the water's edge, so that our domestic differences wouldn't undermine our leverage with the rest of the world.

I guess it's a sign of how frustrated Democrats have been with 7 years of Bush stonewalling that they've resorted to telling the rest of the world, hold on for just a little more, everything will be fixed soon.

Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post, Nations Forge Pact on Global Warming, Climate Change: The United States, under a barrage of criticism from developing countries, agreed today to accept a framework for future climate change talks that would compel industrialized countries to provide measurable technological and financial aid to lesser-off nations if they take verifiable steps to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The compromise, forged mid-day Saturday after a series of around-the-clock negotiations involving 187 nations, bridged the differences between Bush administration officials' insistence that rapidly industrializing nations do their part to address global warming and the developing world's call for greater climate action by Washington.

Under the deal, which will provide the framework for negotiating a new global warming treaty over the next two years, developed nations must take binding "commitments or actions" to cut their emissions, and poorer nations must also seek to reduce their contributions to human-induced climate change.

"This is a real breakthrough, a real opportunity for the international community to successfully fight climate change," said Indonesian Environment Minister and President of the conference, Rachmat Witoelar. "Parties have recognized the urgency of action on climate change and have now provided the political response to what scientists have been telling us is needed."

But the agreement only came together after the talks nearly collapsed Saturday afternoon when Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky told the delegates that the United States was "not willing to accept" language calling on industrialized nations to produce "measurable, reportable and verifiable" assistance to developing countries.

Those comments sparked a round of boos and hisses from the audience -- a rare event in the context of a U.N. negotiation -- and a sharp rebuke from an array of developing countries. ...

In rapid succession, other developing nations also chastised the U.S. for blocking a global agreement.

"If you cannot lead, leave it to the rest of us. Get out of the way," said Kevin Conrad, Papua New Guinea's ambassador for climate change.

Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the standoff between American and other nations helped inspire the developing world to "pull together to keep the process alive before it sunk.

"I've been in this business for twenty years, and I've never seen a drama like that in the U.N. process," he added.

The Times does a better job in its lede of pointing to the emotion of the talks; the Post does a better job further down with its quotes of showing that emotion.

But the Times story, as it usually does, reads as the day's definitive account, the one you read first to set up the framework, with the Post filling in with some nice details.

CNN, no byline, U.S. agrees to Bali compromiseThe United States made a dramatic reversal Saturday, first rejecting and then accepting a compromise to set the stage for intense negotiations in the next two years aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

The U.N. climate change conference in Bali was filled with emotion and cliff-hanging anticipation on Saturday, an extra day added because of a failure to reach agreement during the scheduled sessions.

The final result was a global warming pact that provides for negotiating rounds to conclude in 2009.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the pact "a good beginning." "This is just a beginning and not an ending," Ban said. "We'll have to engage in many complex, difficult and long negotiations."

The head of the U.S. delegation -- Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky -- was booed Saturday afternoon when she announced that the United States was rejecting the plan as then written because they were "not prepared to accept this formulation." She said developing countries needed to carry more of the responsibility.

While rhetoric at such conferences is often just words, a short speech by a delegate from the small developing country of Papua New Guinea appeared to carry weight with the Americans. The delegate challenged the United States to "either lead, follow or get out of the way."

Although thinly written, the anonymous CNN staffer did a good job of spelling out the shift in the U.S.'s position, and also gets the Papua New Guinea speech up higher than the others.

I never know whether to trust CNN.com anymore--they often lead with stuff that's just a promo for CNN programming, and generally puff up stories to make them seem compelling. But in this case, they at least got the drama right.

Joseph Coleman, the Associated Press, UN Climate Conference Adopts Plan: A U.N. climate conference adopted a plan to negotiate a new global warming pact on Saturday, after the United States suddenly reversed its opposition to a call by developing nations for technological help to battle rising temperatures.

The adoption came after marathon negotiations overnight, which first settled a battle between Europe and the U.S. over whether the document should mention specific goals for rich countries' obligations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Upcoming talks, to be completed in 2009, may help determine for years to come how well the world can control climate change, and how severe the consequences of global warming will be.

European and U.S. envoys dueled into the final hours of the two-week meeting over the EU's proposal that the Bali mandate suggest an ambitious goal for cutting the emissions of industrial nations_ by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

That guideline's specific numbers were eliminated from the text, but an indirect reference was inserted instead.

The negotiations snagged again early Saturday over demands by developing nations that their need for technological help from rich nations and other issues receive greater recognition in the document launching the negotiations.

The United States initially rejected those demands, but backed down after delegates criticized the U.S. stand and urged a reconsideration.

"I think we have come a long way here," said Paula Dobriansky, head of the U.S. delegation. "In this, the United States is very committed to this effort and just wants to really ensure we all act together. We will go forward and join consensus."

The sudden reversal was met with rousing applause.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who earlier expressed frustration with the last-minute disputes and urged delegates to end the deadlock, praised the United States for showing flexibility in the final hours.

"I am encouraged by, and I appreciate the spirit of flexibility of the U.S. delegation and other key delegations," he told The Associated Press.

Really, the AP is the first draft of history, given how many thousands of websites its words appear on, especially for breaking news. Coleman's story, like all AP stories, is straightforward, dependant on direct quotes, and essentially accurate.

It's also written in the general horse race style--who won, who lost, who said what.

BBC, no byline, Climate deal sealed by US U-turn: Delegates at the UN summit in Bali have agreed a deal on curbing climate change after days of bitter wrangling.

Agreement was reached after a U-turn from the US, which had wanted firmer commitments from developing countries.

Environment groups said they were disappointed by the lack of firm targets for reducing emissions.

The "Bali roadmap" initiates a two-year process of negotiations designed to agree a new set of emissions targets to replace those in the Kyoto Protocol.

The EU had pressed for a commitment that industrialised nations should commit to cuts of 25-40% by 2020, a bid that was implacably opposed by a bloc containing the US, Canada and Japan.

The final text does not mention specific emissions targets, but does acknowledge that "deep cuts in global emissions will be required to achieve the ultimate objective" of avoiding dangerous climate change.

It also says that a delay in reducing emissions will make severe climate impacts more likely. ...

As talks overran their scheduled close by more than a day, delegates from the EU, US and G-77/China embarked with UN officials on a series of behind-the-scenes consultations aiming to break the remaining deadlock.

The EU and US agreed to drop binding targets; then the EU and China agreed to soften language on commitments from developing countries.

With delegates anxious to make a deal and catch aeroplanes home, the US delegation announced it could not support the amended text.

A chorus of boos rang out. And a member of Papua New Guinea's delegation told the US: "If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way."

Shortly after, the US delegation announced it would support the revised text after all.

There were a number of emotional moments in the conference hall - the UN's top climate official Yvo de Boer in tears after being accused by China of procedural irregularities, and cheers and hugs when the US indicated its acceptance.

The BBC story has the slight attitude characteristic of its stories, like they're always conscious that this is the BBC--literary adjectives like 'implacably', some cheekiness, some random but interesting details--aeroplane reservations can't be changed?!--and of course the ever-present focus on Europe vs. the U.S.

It's interesting that neither Le Monde nor Yomiuri Shimbum have the climate talks updated on their page.