But it was a separate issue that precipitated a riveting, final-hour floor fight.
"Please Get Out of the Way"
India sought to amend the document to strengthen requirements for richer nations to help poorer with technology to limit emissions and adapt to climate change's impacts.
The head of the U.S. delegation, Undersecretary of State Paula J. Dobriansky objected, setting off loud, long boos in the hall.
Next, delegate after delegate took aim at the United States, with South Africa saying Dobriansky's intervention was "most unwelcome and without any basis," and Uganda saying "We would like to beg them" to relent.
Then the delegate from Papua New Guinea leaned into his microphone.
"We seek your leadership," Kevin Conrad told the Americans. "But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way."
The U.N. climate conference exploded with applause, the U.S. delegation backed down, and the way was cleared Saturday for adoption of the "Bali Road Map."
Developing Emissions
When talks begin, the focus again will fall on the United States, the only major industrial country that did not accept Kyoto. That pact requires 37 industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gases by a relatively modest five percent on average in the next five years.
A turning point may come a year down the road following the U.S. election of a new president, who many environmentalists hope will support deeper, mandatory emissions cuts in contrast to President Bush, who favors only voluntary approaches to reining in greenhouse gases.
The exemption of developing nations from the Kyoto Protocol's mandatory caps has also long been a key complaint of American opponents to the U.N. climate treaty process.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the U.S. welcomed the positive steps outlined in the agreement but had "serious concerns" about the different responsibilities that will be shouldered by developed and developing nations.
"The problem of climate change cannot be adequately addressed through commitments for emissions cuts by developed countries alone," Perino said.
"Negotiations must clearly differentiate among developing countries in terms of the size of their economies, their level of emissions, and level of energy utilization, and sufficiently link the character or extent of responsibility to such factors," Perino said.
The comment seemed aimed squarely at China, a developing nation with an economy that is soon expected to zoom past Germany's to become the world's third biggest, after the United States and Japan.
China also now generates a large share of the world's greenhouse gases, with some experts saying it has already overtaken the United States as the world's No. 1 emitter.
The Bali plan does ask for more from the developing world, giving negotiators the task of considering "mitigation actions"—voluntary actions to slow emissions growth—for poorer countries, including such fast-growing economies as China's and India's.
The Hook
For industrial nations, the Bali plan instructs negotiators to consider mitigation "commitments"—mandatory caps as in the Kyoto deal. But the lack of ambitious numerical guidelines—at U.S. insistence—troubled many environmentalists.
"The people of the world wanted more. They wanted binding targets," said Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace Brazil.
Climate policy analyst Eliot Diringer, of Washington's Pew center, looked on the positive side.
"It puts no one on the hook right now for emissions reductions," he said. "What's important, though, is that it lets no one off the hook either."
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Associated Press Writers Joseph Coleman, Michael Casey, Chris Brummitt, and Zakki Hakim contributed to this report.
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