So, I woke up today and am trying to figure out what to expect from the 13th Conference of the Parties in Bali. (Conference of Parties to what? Um, the 1992 Rio “Earth Summit” agreement on climate change. The “Kyoto Protocol” was an amendment to that agreement. The whole mess is administered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC.)

One bit of good news is the appearance of the “Bali Communique” — a document signed by 150 companies. These companies say they want legally binding targets, targets set by science, and emphasis on industrialized companies lowering their emissions. I agree with all of those things, and we’ll try to sort out in the weeks to come how much of this is greenwashing and, related, how much is simply a license to keep moving industrial production to the non-completely-industrialized world.

Another bit of good news is that drought-parched Australia has figured out that it better participate in this whole dance. The new Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, got Kyoto signed right away. So who hasn’t signed now? One guess. India and China signed Kyoto without any responsibilities, however, keep in mind — they’re not part of “Annex I”, in Kyoto-speak.
That all ultimately doesn’t matter, because Kyoto itself is both flawed and puny. The aim is to create an agreement on a “process” for or “road map” to an agreement, itself to be finalized in 2009. The work product will be a PROCESS, people. Be afraid, be very afraid.