Having posted the details below on Ban Ki-Moon’s December climate conference at a seaside luxury resort on Bali, I’ve now gone a bit deeper into the UNFCC web site (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change). There the UNFCC has posted its “Overview Schedule” for the conference. Not only are the proceedings amid the beaches and tennis courts (see photo in Nov. 4 post, below) scheduled to go on…and on… and on… for a full 12 days. It also looks like the work hours won’t intrude all that much on the recreational possibilities.

The meetings at the Dec. 3-14 conference begin each day at a leisurely 10 A.M., with a two-hour break for lunch, and wrap up their work on assigned topics by 6 PM. Except on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday — Dec. 6,7, 8 and 10 — when all meetings will be devoted to “informal groups.” On Sunday, Dec. 9, there are no meetings scheduled at all. In other words, the workaday UN conferees will be jetting to Bali for a routine in which they spend almost half the 12 days of the conference engaged in unstructured activities, start work mid-morning, lunch from 1-3 P.M. and knock off in time for cocktails.

Why is Ban Ki-Moon steering public resources into a two-week UN climate-crowd pajama party on Bali? I’m almost tempted to protest. Except if these folks skip the mai-tais by the pool and toil around the clock, it could get even worse. The last time the UN rolled up its sleeves and went to work on a giant project, we got Oil-for-Food. If the UN in the name of controlling the climate gets into the business of regulating the economies and reallocating the resources of the entire planet, it could cost the rest of us trillions in productivity lost, creativity stifled and development thwarted — or, in a nutshell — freedoms foregone. So, interesting though the inevitably ensuing corruption scandals might be, here’s hoping the conferees at Ban’s Bali Blowout take a hint from the Overview Schedule, and spend all their time on the beach.

The would-be regulators of the world’s climate (and your wallet) will be jetting to Bali this December for Ban Ki-Moon’s next UN weather fest: “UN Climate Change Conference 2007.” UN policy allows even the lowlier UN staffers to travel business class on long-haul flights (your tax dollars at work), the better to arrive wined, dined and ready to hit the ground …and the beaches … and the golf courses … and the tennis courts — running. Apparently there is so much to discuss that the conference will run for a full fortnight, from Dec. 3-14, at Bali’s seaside luxury resort of Nusa Dua.

For all those taxpayer mugs out there who have not had the experience of flying business class to spend a fortnight at Nusa Dua, check out the spectacular seaside photos of the Bali International Convention Center, with its slogan: “The Place…Where Business is a Pleasure.” For more information, page through the Bali conference outline on the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change, or UNFCC, web site. This includes a handy list of pre/post conference tours, and a list of hotels (Nusa Dua Beach Hotel and Spa, and Melia Bali Villas and Spa Resort, already sold out) plus recreational facilities: sailing, fishing, snorkeling, ocean kayaking, and, of course, the shopping gallery.
There, undistracted by the winter winds whipping past the UN’s NY headquarters (now prepping for a $2 billion renovation), they will discuss the many ways in which the UN can collect fees and fund more conferences via taxes and productivity caps administered by the same UN system which refuses to open its own books to the public (where is that full and transparent accounting we were promised for the tsunami donations?).

Recall that the UN apparently rebuffed out of hand a recent invitation from Canada to move its headquarters north. One might just wonder — would “climate change,” be such an urgent UN issue were UN bureaucrats required to hold their meetings without availing themselves quite so amply of other people’s money to enjoy their own convenient change of climate.

Quick Multiple Choice Quiz on the UN system: Will the UN release for the perusal of Joe-average taxpayer a detailed post-conference breakdown of staff expense accounts for Ban’s bash on Bali?

D. In order to operate, the UN must preserve its confidentiality in such matters. Tennis, anyone?