For the second time in five years, Indonesia's resort island of Bali is chosen for the venue of a global meeting on environment issues.
The organizers are anticipating more than 10,000 participants from all over the world for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from Dec. 3 to 14.
Such a huge crowd can match the number of participants when the island hosted the final preparatory meeting for the Johannesburg' s World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in May 2002.
But having organized another high-profile world environment meeting apparently doesn't make the upcoming task any easier.
Indonesia, disturbed with a label as one of the world's biggest emitters, acknowledged a harder work as it had promised the upcoming global gathering that is safer, friendlier and greener.
All motor vehicles entering the venue at the Nusa Dua beach area will be obliged to use biofuel, the organizers have said. This may take an extra job because biofuel is currently available only in a few gas stations in the capital of Jakarta, about 950 km from Bali.
Also to add an eco-friendly taste to the host country ahead of the meeting, many state institutions, including the military and police, were involved in the nationwide planting program earlier this week.
The country kicked off the campaign to plant 79 million trees under a program that cost an estimate of 1.28 trillion rupiah (about 136.5 million US dollars).
The campaign "shows Indonesia's commitment to preserving the environment and saving our planet," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said when launching the program on Wednesday.
World leaders from around 80 countries and regions and representatives of more than 180 countries and regions are expected to attend the Bali meeting, which will seek a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.
"As the host country, we want the UNFCCC meeting to run smoothly," said State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar. His wife Erna Witoelar led the organizing committee of the 2002 Bali meeting.
Security is also the main issue for Bali, which fell victim to the terrorist bombings only five months after WSSD preparatory conference and again in October 2005.
Indonesia will deploy around 10,000 policemen and 2,000 soldiers to Nusa Dua for security arrangement, which will also get a backup from the UN security personnel whose figure is not yet available.
The 12-day Bali conference is the culmination of rising global concern about climate change and participants are expected to come up with a common strategy to combat global warming.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has published a report stating that global warming is a phenomenon beyond all doubts. The report said the earth has seen the warmest surface temperature in the last 12 years since 1850 and higher global average sea levels because of the global warming.
The climate change may increase the risks of widespread flooding and storms in Asia, water shortage in Africa and extinction of many world's species, unless there are concerted efforts by the international communities to tackle the problem.
Bali meeting offers a great opportunity for global communities to remind each other that they must wait no more to combat global warming, whose impacts are evident and potential outcomes are predictably disastrous.
Source: Xinhua
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