With the Kyoto deal finally in the bag after a marathon round of negotiations, delegates to the resumed session of the climate change talks congratulated themselves on a job well done. For many of the negotiators who have followed these grueling negotiations over the last 10 years it was a bitter sweet moment to see Jan Pronk, the flamboyant Dutch president of COP6, bring his gavel down on the Bonn deal: bitter because the Americans had not agreed, but sweet because it showed that no matter the obstacles countries can work together to solve pressing issues of global concern to humanity such as the environment.
Reflecting on recent turbulent events, including shocking antiglobalization protests in Genoa, political strife in Indonesia and escalated violence in the West Bank, the conference showed that "multilateralism could triumph over unilateralism," declared Iranian Ambassador Bagher Asadi, who led the developing countries coalition throughout the Bonn talks.
Since the Kyoto Protocol was first signed in Japan's ancient capitol in 1997, skeptics have criticized the negotiations as too ambitious, too complex and, as U.S. President George W. Bush claimed, "fatally flawed." The successful outcome of the negotiations proved these critics wrong and, moreover, that the United Nations can be an effective forum for global problem-solving, according to Pronk.