Scientists, bureaucrats and politicians from around the world have arrived in Bali for the beginning of what is perhaps the world’s largest-ever conference on climate change, geared towards laying the foundation for a new global treaty that will extend beyond the current Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

And it began with a big announcement.

Monday’s session opened with delegates giving a standing ovation for Australia as the country’s delegate, Howard Bamsey, announced Canberra was ratifying the Kyoto accord…The move ends more than a decade of resistance to the environmental pact and leaves the United States as the sole developed nation that has not recognized the accord.

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