How China sabotaged Copenhagen climate talks

[Michaelangelica]

Eyewitness: How China sabotaged climate talks

 

Posted 7 hours 7 minutes ago

Updated 6 hours 21 minutes ago

'Intentionally humiliated': Lynas says China set out to snub and shift blame onto US President Barack Obama.

 

A writer and environmental activist who was present at the final Copenhagen climate talks says China sabotaged the deal and ensured Barack Obama would shoulder the blame.

 

While China's Premier Wen Jiabao insisted his government had played an "important and constructive" role, the talks in the Danish capital ended with a political accord rather than a binding agreement.

 

Mark Lynas, who was attached to the Maldives delegation, described what he saw at the talks as "profoundly shocking".

 

"I am certain that had the Chinese not been in the room, we would have left Copenhagen with a deal that had environmentalists popping champagne corks in every corner of the world," he wrote in the The Guardian.

 

"The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful 'deal' so Western leaders would walk away carrying the blame.

 

He says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and other Western leaders were visibly upset when China started "removing all the numbers that mattered" in the final talks, including emissions cuts by developed countries of 80 per cent by 2050.

 

"'Why can't we even mention our own targets?' demanded a furious [German Premier] Angela Merkel.

 

"Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was annoyed enough to bang his microphone. Brazil's representative too pointed out the illogicality of China's position. Why should rich countries not announce even this unilateral cut?

 

"The Chinese delegate said no, and I watched, aghast, as Merkel threw up her hands in despair and conceded the point. Now we know why - because China bet, correctly, that Obama would get the blame for the Copenhagen accord's lack of ambition.

 

"But I saw Obama fighting desperately to salvage a deal, and the Chinese delegate saying "no", over and over again."

 

Lynas says the 2020 peaking year was then "replaced by woolly language" and the global 50 per cent cuts by 2050 were also removed.

 

"No-one else, perhaps with the exceptions of India and Saudi Arabia, wanted this to happen," Lynas said.

 

'Took the bait

Lynas fears "the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations".

 

"China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again. And sure enough, the aid agencies, civil society movements and environmental groups all took the bait," he said.

. . . . . .'

 

Eyewitness: How China sabotaged climate talks - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

 

 

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* Related Link: Read Mark Lynas' article on Copenhagen

[BrianG]

I think it's brilliant, outlaw temperature change, leave the middleman alone. This way we can have, both economic growth powered by fossil fuel development, and limited climate change.