Copenhagen diary: Wednesday 9 December 2009
It didn't take long - the leaking has begun.
On only the second day of two-weeks of climate negotiations in Copenhagen a draft text, apparently prepared by the Danish hosts, has prompted fears that they are excluding developing countries, and their demands, from the negotiating process.
This so-called , leaked to the Guardian newspaper, is dated 27 November 2009, and given the pace of these negotiations it is likely to be out of date by now.
There appear to have been at least two big discussions of it since then, and probably a lot of less comprehensive talks.
But as it has come out into the open, the text has become the focus of anger and frustration from developing countries and, to some extent, China, at Copenhagen itself.
They see this as confirmation that there has been a parallel track taking place, outside the main United Nations (UN) negotiating process.
The Danish hosts have been preparing a slimmed down version of the official early 200-odd pages of UN text.
That is because they are now working towards only a political accord or agreement, rather than a legally-binding treaty, albeit with all the key elements on finance, technology transfer, forests and numbers on emissions cuts included.
When I spoke to the Danes last night, they were adamant that there are no "secret" documents, or shady back-room deals, and that they are talking to everybody, developing countries included.
They say working papers like this are circulated as part of the informal negotiating process.
But the head of the G77 group of developing countries, Sudan's Ambassador Lumumba Stanislaus-Kaw Di-Aping, told me that the Danish approach had "endangered the entire process".
He said it confirmed the suspicions of the developing countries that the prime minister of Denmark, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, had decided simply to put forward the interests of "the EU, and other advanced countries".
He said the Danes risked undermining the "integrity, transparency and balance" of the negotiations, and that this was:
"An unfortunate development... particularly coming from the chair, who is supposed to shepherd the process to find an equitable deal."
An adviser to the Malawi delegation, Clement Kalonga, is clearly anxious about how things are going.
He told Newsnight: "It's quite a concern for us in the developing world that we are the worst affected in terms of climate change, and lives are being lost every day, and we are being sidelined in negotiations for a deal which should be fair to address the problem of climate change."
So are developing countries right to be wary, given the tone of this early draft?
Well certainly the Danes are being accused, at the very least, of handling things poorly.
Early on they set up something called the Copenhagen Circle of Commitment - made up of key players such as the US and the EU.
The motive was a delicate balance of seeking to secure a deal, without appearing to impose one in a heavy-handed way.
It was always a high-risk strategy. This "circle" appears only relatively recently to have been widened to include a larger pool of countries, and that has annoyed a lot of people.
Expect more leaks like this, they are common currency of this process, and used, through journalists, to apply pressure on the negotiations themselves.
What really counts is the text at the very end of it all, and that that text includes a deadline, perhaps June? by when it's agreed a treaty must be signed.
Any later, and US congressional elections will get in the way of anything much beyond words resulting from Copenhagen.
Comment number 1.
At 9th Dec 2009, JunkkMale wrote:Well, one person's damaging leak is another person's nothing to worry about.
I am sure watertight oversight was applied rigourously before any in the print or broadcast media rushed to 'break' a juicy story that might be true, or not.
so this is one of those times when you don’t want to be believing everything you read in the Guardian.
Cue brains freezing in certain complementary editorial rooms and suites.
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Comment number 2.
At 9th Dec 2009, barriesingleton wrote:CONSPIRACY WITHIN A CONSPIRACY?
If you have marked ALL the cards in the pack, and a rat is smelt, might it be smart to be found with just one UP YOUR SLEEVE?
The email furore is directing the ninnies away from the NIPCC and all the other a-political science that stands, outside the Gore Lie, offering a very different reality. And - naturally, Newsnight pads along like the sort of pussycat that goes walkies.
In desperation: can Susan PLEASE DO SOME INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING! The leads are all over the NN blogs.
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Comment number 3.
At 9th Dec 2009, JunkkMale wrote:Expect more leaks like this, they are common currency of this process, and used, through journalists, to apply pressure on the negotiations themselves.
Reporting, in this new world order, seems to involve being handed something and then reprinting it as 'news'.
Beyond this Editors exist to either remove or re-arrange any untidy aspects to fit 'the narrative'.
Going to find out, or looking where others might not wish it, then hewing close to the line and just letting the chips fall where they may are professional skills and commitments from another age.
When one works 'for' the 91Èȱ¬ I wonder if, when granted smooth passage to the front of the queue at a briefing, it ever registers in the back of an enquiring mind who the 91Èȱ¬ might, in turn, serve?
Or maybe there is an often unearned conceit that it is personal skill and reputation that finds the role as its representative 'respected' for an influence that is still hefty, which those with an interest in events being 'interpreted' 'correctly' can and do value.
So long as the game is played. Careers can get cramped if the flow is cut off, which tends to shape the extent of delve applied. And when.
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Comment number 4.
At 9th Dec 2009, barriesingleton wrote:BRUTUS WAS AMBITIOUS ED, AND BRUTUS WAS AN 'HONOURABLE' MAN (#1 link)
Hey Junkk - put a warning on a link like that. Last time I encountered Limited ED has was 'an optimist' wanting us to be swept along by its vacuousness. Now he is 'ambitious' (another attribute unconnected with competence) and clearly feels 'that will do nicely'.
If ninnies such as Limited Ed are the cream of Westminster, what cheesy, reject mass lies below? Clearly our model of democracy is on a par with the one that will boil us as we drown - by Friday. We just have to STOP elevating - even voting for and dubbing 'honourable' NINNIES. Where to start?
SPOIL PARTY GAMES.
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Comment number 5.
At 9th Dec 2009, jauntycyclist wrote:hahaha china is angry?
you bet.
they love the carbon trading racket. because they make millions out of it.
...The Chinese authorities’ misuse of the carbon credit scheme, CDM, has come to the surface, challenging the effectiveness of the global carbon trade in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
There is big money to be made from carbon credits. The Xiaoxi hydropower project is estimated to produce a reduction of 423,395 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the CDM Web site. According to the Guardian, the European Union gives allowance of €10.15 (US$14.92)per CER unit, which equals one metric ton of carbon dioxide. Thus, the Xiaoxi hydropower project alone is worth over US$6 million per year. The German power utility RWE, one of the biggest CO2 emitters in Europe, buys these carbon credits to meet its emissions requirement.
.....
so everyone's energy bills goes to fund dodgy and unaudited schemes all around the world and in china.
carbon credits does nothing for the climate in the sense of co2 reduction but it makes a few very rich through a tax on our 'western' energy bills.
whatever it is its not justice.
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Comment number 6.
At 9th Dec 2009, jauntycyclist wrote:...Tax fraudsters have targeted the EU's carbon emissions trading system, pocketing about five billion euros (7.4 billion dollars), the Europol police agency said Wednesday.
"The European Union Emission Trading System has been the victim of fraudulent traders in the past 18 months," said the agency in a statement.
"This resulted in losses of approximately five billion euros for several national tax revenues."....
it should be renamed the mafia credit scheme?
but the happy clappy consensus shinning eyed believers promoting carbon trading want this madness to continue.
i don't remember a report on NN when the uk got hit by this fraud in the summer?
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Comment number 7.
At 9th Dec 2009, jauntycyclist wrote:UN begging for carbon trading?
...The United Nations executive secretary....Yvo de Boer's pleaded for market-based mechanisms such as carbon trading to be made a priority over regulation...
But many green campaigners and investors alike argue it has not been properly monitored, allowing low-carbon project developers to engage in creative green accounting.
The UN last week banned several Chinese wind farms from participating in the scheme, having temporarily suspended the whole country, over fears they had been playing the system....
playing the system....
while we are paying for the system.
that includes oaps and other poor people trying to keep warm.
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Comment number 8.
At 9th Dec 2009, jauntycyclist wrote:does this explain why the bbc is slow in exposing the climate scams? they have too much invested in the belief?
...91Èȱ¬ reporters have travelled the globe to see the impact of the issue on people and the places they live in. ...
the impact they don't want to show is the impact of carbon trading on westerners who have to pay it through their bills.
its a very middle class religion.
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Comment number 9.
At 10th Dec 2009, JunkkMale wrote:8. At 8:54pm on 09 Dec 2009, jauntycyclist
...91Èȱ¬ reporters have travelled the globe to see the impact of the issue on people and the places they live in. ..
...and they have been for a while.
/blogs/ethicalman/2009/12/the_tv_stunt_that_almost_cost_me_my_marriage.html
Guessing irony is not a strong suit in certain well-insulated (from a lot, especially reality) corporations.
All part of my 'right messengers for such a key message?' narrative (see, I can have 'em , too, and seldom need much to get them enhanced).
Were it that I could get the public to fund my next jaunt to Singapore to visit the in laws in the name of 'awareness'.
Maybe in some media farms it's a case of 'All jobs and social lives are equally polluting, but some are more breezily explained away as being 'important' than others.'
Unique.
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