Update: those environmentalists are Westerners. According to Tech Central Station the poor countries wanted economic progress rather than insistence on renewables, and that's what got into the final plan:
A source involved in the negotiations said that the text - emphasizing economic growth rather than environmental regulation - resulted from pressure by poor countries, which resisted calls by Europeans for a requirement that renewables generate 15 percent of the world's energy by 2015.
"The overall feeling," said the source, "was that renewables might be fine for Europeans, but Africans and Asians need to boost their economies by using energy that is inexpensive and abundant." The source was clearly referring to oil and coal, which will provide the vast majority of energy for China and India over the next decade.
What is remarkable is that the final text, completed late Monday night by a panel headed by South Africa Minister of Environment and Tourism Valli Moosa, does not mention renewables targets at all. To the contrary, it directly links energy use, in general, to the alleviation of poverty. The text emphasized what has become - to the chagrin of the radicals - the theme of this conference, that economic progress is directly linked to environmental progress.
Meanwhile, the fact that Colin L. Powell was repeatedly interrupted by heckling and boos is big news in the Washington Post and New York Times, but neither reports that Zimbabwe's Mugabe by listeners, including the media. (Mugabe links thanks to Instapundit.)
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