A conference that could have brought important progress on climate change ended in disappointment. In Bali, where delegates from 187 countries met

to begin framing a new global warming treaty, America’s negotiators were in full foot-dragging mode, acting as spoilers rather than providing the leadership the world needs.

In Washington, caving to pressures from the White House the Senate settled for a merely decent energy bill instead of a very good one that would have set the country on a clear path to a cleaner future. Despite pleas from their European allies, the US flatly rejected the idea of setting even provisional targets for reductions in greenhouse gases. And they refused to give what the rest of the world wanted most: an unambiguous commitment to reducing US’s own emissions. Without that, there is little hope that other large emitters, including China, will change their ways.

This Senate will have another chance to provide the US leadership the world needs on climate change. An ambitious bipartisan bill aimed at cutting US’s greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by mid-century has been approved by a Senate committee. Though the bill is far from perfect and will provoke intense debate, it could offer a measure of redemption for the administration’s embarrassing failure in Bali.