As y'all know, I'm very frustrated by the pace on negotiations on policies that address global warming.

As the Senate minority holds the energy bill hostage, news from the U.N. Conference on Climate Change in Bali focuses largely on U.S. and Chinese intransigence.

According to coverage in the New York Times:

The world's top two polluters, the U.S. and China, say they are not ready to commit to mandatory caps on greenhouse gases…

The chief U.S. negotiator said Washington would come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008, and would not commit to mandatory caps in the coming days.

''We're not ready to do that here,'' said Harlan Watson…

China, which is increasingly turning to coal-powered electricity plants and factories to help fuel its booming economy, has also stood firm in saying it would not agree to binding targets. It says the West is responsible for rising temperatures, because it has been pumping climate-changing gases into the air for centuries.

And U.N. leaders aren't exactly helping matters. In typical conciliatory fashion, U.N. climate chief, Yvo de Boer, said:

This meeting is not about delivering a fully negotiated climate change deal, but it is to set the wheels in motion…

Reaching a conclusion even in two years is going to be very ambitious, let alone trying to achieve that kind of result in two weeks.

Sorry guys, but I just don't buy this laissez faire approach. We need demonstrable action to be taken by all parties — by Congress and by the delegates in Bali.

If not now, when?

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