Monday, 10 December, 4:00 p.m. — John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts in the United States came to Bali today representing Congressional leaders. Still wearing a stiffly pressed suit while everyone else in Bali is dressed more casually, the Senator called for the Bali conference to result in a "strong mandate based on science."

"We believe that there is a significant transformational effort now taking place in the US. The US is going to lead." New legislation under consideration in the Senate, he says, would implement a cap and trade system that would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions of 65-70 per cent by 2050.

Kerry was adamant that developing countries fully participate in any new process on climate change, adding that the lack of an adequate process to bring in developing countries doomed the chances of joining the Kyoto Protocol. "This has to be achieved globally." Rich countries have to help, through technology transfer and technical assistance, but developing countries have to take on best practices and avoid the mistakes we made since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution."

Monday, 10 December, 3:00 p.m. — One of the areas of visible disagreement at the Bali Conference is over targets, or goals, in the outcome of Bali. The IPCC suggested that a reduction in greenhouse gases in the range of 25-40 per cent by 2020 was necessary in order to keep the earth's temperature from rising 2°C. The EU suggested that a roadmap would require a "long-term" vision and that includes setting such a target. The US , however, has maintained that the Bali document should not contain targets or any other goals that would "prejudge" the outcome of the negotiations.

Monday, 10 December, 12:30 p.m. — Not only will climate change affect individual human rights, it is likely to aggravate old and trigger new tensions around the world that result in violence, conflict or war according to a new report launched by UNEP today, Human Rights Day.

"This is not a prediction that the world is going to go up in flames," says the head of UNEP, Achim Steiner. Rather, he points out, the report is meant to raise attention to the tensions that climate change may exacerbate, whether due to access to water, land degradation or sea level rise. In South Asia, he asked: "Where will tens of millions of people move when there is no place in South Asia where people aren’t already living."

Security could be an issue in cities like Lima, Peru, a city of seven million which will suffer a loss of water as the glaciers of the Andes melt, as well as in regions on both sides of the Himalayas, say Hans Schellnhuber, one of the main authors. Another region he says will further affected by climate change is the Sahel, from Senegal to the Horn of Africa.