Wednesday, 12 December, 3:00 p.m. — Yesterday it was penguins. Today it is snails. The complaint was that governments were moving at a snail's pace in addressing climate change.

And an update: the jackets and ties worn this morning have not lasted. By afternoon, most participants all looked like NGOs again.

Wednesday, 12 December, 2:00 p.m. — Most of the questions directed at the Secretary-General during a 30-minute press conference today focused on the question of targets for achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions. The question of targets has bedeviled the negotiations so far and the negotiating text contains a reference to the fact that the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 per cent by 2020 in order to keep the global temperature from rising more than 2°C this century. The European Union has supported the inclusion of the target while the US has opposed it and countries are still discussing the issue.

The Secretary-General said the figure were a range that could guide the negotiations, but that targets would have to be set further down the road. He also answered a question about what happens if the conference fails to adopt a roadmap. "We work for success, we don't work for failure. We must succeed at this Bali meeting."

Wednesday, 12 December, 12:00 p.m. — It's not enough just to talk about climate change. The UN, which has been at the forefront of pushing the issue at the international level, announced that it was going green in Bali. The Secretary-General said, "We will lead by example, by moving towards carbon neutrality throughout the UN System."

Some 20 UN agencies, funds and programmes joined together — something that UNEP head Achim Steiner noted is difficult to begin with — to offset the emissions caused by their travel to Bali, including the emissions caused by the travel of this writer. The carbon offsets will be accomplished by buying certified emission credits from the newly operational Adaptation Fund. The greening effort will go beyond Bali, and the UN system is working on a number of ways to make its operations climate-neutral and Norway is providing $820,000 for that effort.

Some countries are already on the road to becoming climate neutral, with Norway aiming for 2050, Costa Rica planning to be climate neutral by 2021, its 200^th anniversary of independence, and New Zealand shooting for a 2025 goal of generating 90 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Wednesday, 12 December, 10:30 a.m. — "The eyes of the world are upon us," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told ministers and other high-level officials this morning. Through either clairvoyance or coincidence, two NGOs, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, adorned the entryway to the Conference Center with hundreds of white balloons bearing "eyes," to drive home the point that everyone is watching.

Wednesday, 12 December, 9:30 a.m. — The suits are back. After a week and a half a casually dress negotiators, the arrival UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and 144 ministers and six heads of state apparently prompted delegates to don their more business-like attire.

More people seemed determined to get to work on time today, causing long lines through security checkpoints, bag checkers, badge scanners and x-ray machines. No one questioned the heightened security, in light of the bombing that killed UN staff in Algiers. A moment of silence was held to remember the victims of the bombing at the beginning of the opening ceremony.

The mood was decidedly more serious as well on climate change matters, with progress on the various issues moving advancing at very uneven speeds. Countries have agreed on the details to make the new Adaptation Fund work, but decisions on some of the major issues of the conference will now be left for the ministers, including the Bali roadmap.