Irwin Stelzer: Bali delegates must face true costs of their plans

They’re home now, or on their way, the 15,000 (or was it 20,000?) assorted politicians, environmental advocates and journalists who descended on Bali to craft a road map to — another conference in 2009, at which they hope to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.

A punster might say that the conferees from 190 nations left on a Bali high. Whether their joy will remain unrestrained depends on when they realize that no road map alone will be able to make cuts in those greenhouse gases a reality. That will take a willingness to face up to the costs that will have to be borne.