Lead or get out of the way

"After the global climate summit in Bali went into an unscheduled 13th day of talks, the United States said it would not accept the statement as it wanted developing countries such as fast-growing China to make tougher commitments.

The senior US negotiator, Paula Dobriansky, was loudly booed by other delegations, and a US environmental activist representing Papua New Guinea said to rousing cheers: “If you’re not willing to lead, please get out of the way.”

The response, and a threat by German Environment minister to directly involve the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seemed to do the trick.

After repeated verbal lashings, Dobriansky again took the microphone and said that Washington would “go forward and join consensus,” to the cheers of the conference."

"Leadership is not stubborn backwardness. It is also not the exclusive domain of superpowers like the US, Russia, China, and India or G8 nations like Canada. It is a brave clarion call like the one made by Kevin Conrad of little Papua New Guinea."

Sources:
Carbon Planet
Creative Generalist
Pantagraph

It has become clear that it's the European Union that leads the climate talks, while the US, Canada and Japan actively get in the way. And (as always) no one, not even the EU, is doing as much as they really could and should to help the poor.