WikiLeaks Cables Reveal How US Manipulated Climate Accord

[Better Believe It]

WikiLeaks Cables Reveal How US Manipulated Climate Accord
Embassy dispatches show America used spying, threats and promises of aid to get support for Copenhagen accord
by Damian Carrington
December 4, 2010

Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.

The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial "Copenhagen accord", the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009.

Seeking negotiating chips, the US state department sent a secret cable on 31 July 2009 seeking human intelligence from UN diplomats across a range of issues, including climate change. The request originated with the CIA. As well as countries' negotiating positions for Copenhagen, diplomats were asked to provide evidence of UN environmental "treaty circumvention" and deals between nations.

But intelligence gathering was not just one way. On 19 June 2009, the state department sent a cable detailing a "spear phishing" attack on the office of the US climate change envoy, Todd Stern, while talks with China on emissions took place in Beijing. Five people received emails, personalised to look as though they came from the National Journal. An attached file contained malicious code that would give complete control of the recipient's computer to a hacker. While the attack was unsuccessful, the department's cyber threat analysis division noted: "It is probable intrusion attempts such as this will persist."

Getting as many countries as possible to associate themselves with the accord strongly served US interests, by boosting the likelihood it would be officially adopted. A diplomatic offensive was launched. Diplomatic cables flew thick and fast between the end of Copenhagen in December 2009 and late February 2010, when the leaked cables end.

Please read the article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-us-manipulated-climate-accord

[Better Believe It]

1. Read the full text and actual U.S. Embassy Cables regarding the climate accord at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-us-manipulated-climate-accord

I'm not posting the actual cables on DU because it might put DU at risk in this "free" country unless I hear otherwise. But, I think we can safely link to them via public sources. BBI



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US embassy cables: Maldives tout $50m climate projects to US

US embassy cables: Obama says no to EU-US climate summit in Madrid

US embassy cables: EU president Van Rompuy angry at climate talks snub

US embassy cables: US climate change negotiators targeted by cyberattack

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. I was in the Copenhagen Conference

as a minor player that I am in this life..........


The Industrialist are the political power and not nations.

They decided the whole thing.

AT LEAST I WAS THERE.

in my small way.

[calimary]

2. Wonder if that's why these international sports groups have defeated two US bids

for big international sporting events?

Passive-aggressive counterpunches?

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

The Beijing talks failed to lead to a global deal at Copenhagen. But the US, the world's biggest historical polluter and long isolated as a climate pariah, had something to cling to. The Copenhagen accord, hammered out in the dying hours but not adopted into the UN process, offered to solve many of the US's problems.

The accord turns the UN's top-down, unanimous approach upside down, with each nation choosing palatable targets for greenhouse gas cuts. It presents a far easier way to bind in China and other rapidly growing countries than the UN process. But the accord cannot guarantee the global greenhouse gas cuts needed to avoid dangerous warming. Furthermore, it threatens to circumvent the UN's negotiations on extending the Kyoto protocol, in which rich nations have binding obligations. Those objections have led many countries – particularly the poorest and most vulnerable – to vehemently oppose the accord.

Thanks for the thread, Better Believe It.

[davidwparker]

5. K&R

[leftstreet]

6. K&R