Climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves at the highest levels of govern-ment worldwide. Heads of State at the G8 Summit prioritized it above all others. The US Congress has before it a record number of legislative proposals and, for the first time, real consideration is expected in the coming months.  Preparations by the UN Secretary General for a high level meeting in Septem-ber are underway, joining Heads of State not only from the G8+5 but also those most vul-nerable to climate change. 

Even President Bush felt enough domestic and international pressure to at least appear to be doing something.  He felt compelled to set up his own process for climate talks, albeit a spoiler process, for public relation purposes.  As delegates arrive in Vienna they should be aware that the general public and many influ-ential groups in the business and finance sec-tors around the world already have the Bali COP on their agenda - and they have high expectations.  For them, and for us, Bali is a meeting that must give people, young and old, hope that governments of the world are actually going to get serious about preventing dangerous climate change.

It is in this light that Vienna must be seen.  No longer an issue for low-level technical negotiations, climate change demands a more serious process to deliver an ambitious out-come in 2009.  The G8 nations agreed to a timetable for UN-based comprehensive global negotiations on the post-2012 regime by the end of 2009. This timetable should be the focus of Vienna as it develops, as it must, the core element of a Bali Mandate.

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