Wikileaks: Cables released show why Copenhagen was a failure

[eyewall]

Last year's climate summit in Copenhagen was a political disaster. Leaked US diplomatic cables now show why the summit failed so spectacularly. The dispatches reveal that the US and China, the world's top two polluters, joined forces to stymie every attempt by European nations to reach agreement.

In May 2009 the Chinese leaders received a very welcome guest. John Kerry, the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, met with Deputy Prime Minister Li Keqiang in Beijing. Kerry told his hosts that Washington could understand "China's resistance to accepting mandatory targets at the United Nations Climate Conference, which will take place in Copenhagen."

According to a cable from the US embassy in the Chinese capital, Kerry outlined "a new basis for 'major cooperation' between the United States and China on climate change." At that time, many Europeans were hoping the delegates at the Copenhagen summit would agree climate-change measures that could save the planet from the cumulative effects of global warming. But that dream died pitifully in mid-December 2009, and the world leaders went their separate ways again without any concrete achievements. Confidential US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks now show just how closely the world's biggest polluters -- the United States and China -- colluded in the months leading up to the conference. And they give weight to those who have long suspected that the two countries secretly formed an alliance.

The cooperation began under the last US president, George W. Bush. In 2007 Bush's senior climate negotiator, Harlan Watson, organized a 10-year framework agreement with China on cooperation on energy and the environment. The two countries also agreed to hold a "Strategic and Economic Dialogue" -- backroom talks that neither the Americans nor the Chinese were willing to admit to at first...

Full Article:

http://www.spiegel.d...,733630,00.html

This just goes down as another piece of evidence for the obvious that our politicians lack true conviction. Even so called progressives took part in this one. The special interests and corporations rule for sure!

[cpickett79]

Last year's climate summit in Copenhagen was a political disaster. Leaked US diplomatic cables now show why the summit failed so spectacularly. The dispatches reveal that the US and China, the world's top two polluters, joined forces to stymie every attempt by European nations to reach agreement.

In May 2009 the Chinese leaders received a very welcome guest. John Kerry, the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, met with Deputy Prime Minister Li Keqiang in Beijing. Kerry told his hosts that Washington could understand "China's resistance to accepting mandatory targets at the United Nations Climate Conference, which will take place in Copenhagen."

According to a cable from the US embassy in the Chinese capital, Kerry outlined "a new basis for 'major cooperation' between the United States and China on climate change." At that time, many Europeans were hoping the delegates at the Copenhagen summit would agree climate-change measures that could save the planet from the cumulative effects of global warming. But that dream died pitifully in mid-December 2009, and the world leaders went their separate ways again without any concrete achievements. Confidential US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks now show just how closely the world's biggest polluters -- the United States and China -- colluded in the months leading up to the conference. And they give weight to those who have long suspected that the two countries secretly formed an alliance.

The cooperation began under the last US president, George W. Bush. In 2007 Bush's senior climate negotiator, Harlan Watson, organized a 10-year framework agreement with China on cooperation on energy and the environment. The two countries also agreed to hold a "Strategic and Economic Dialogue" -- backroom talks that neither the Americans nor the Chinese were willing to admit to at first...

Full Article:

http://www.spiegel.d...,733630,00.html

LOL i love it....i.e corruption that comes to light.

good .....the political push to capitalize on a short lived period of warming and hysteria should be stymied.....and since we are in the den of deception (politics) off course it was stymied thru corruption. The means behind this push for "change" was always $$ and power....so long as the world is round.

there is such a degree of "corruption" that is really just a broad catch all phrase for all those doing what is in their own best intersts wether it is a corporation......a country.....a individual officer on said company....a certain influential group....class warfare......lobbyist....the revolving door between treasury fed reserve and wal st......etc....and these are entangled over and thru each other so much that the world is really one big cluster F of corruption.....and then it is dressed up .....given a make over and sent out the boob tube on CNN for the sheeple to lap up like this Dog crap is actually palatable accurate news. Then this guy gives the world a shot of the truth......which really doesn't do much good. and then he threatens to take down a big bank and poom .....held in court with no bail for not using a condom. awesome

[eyewall]

LOL i love it....i.e corruption that comes to light.

good .....the political push to capitalize on a short lived period of warming and hysteria should be stymied.....and since we are in the den of deception (politics) off course it was stymied thru corruption. The means behind this push for "change" was always $ and power....so long as the world is round.

there is such a degree of "corruption" that is really just a broad catch all phrase for all those doing what is in their own best intersts wether it is a corporation......a country.....a individual officer on said company....a certain influential group....class warfare......lobbyist....the revolving door between treasury fed reserve and wal st......etc....and these are entangled over and thru each other so much that the world is really one big cluster F of corruption.....and then it is dressed up .....given a make over and sent out the boob tube on CNN for the sheeple to lap up like this Dog crap is actually palatable accurate news. Then this guy gives the world a shot of the truth......which really doesn't do much good. and then he threatens to take down a big bank and poom .....held in court with no bail for not using a condom. awesome

The level of corruption is absolutely sickening and this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of colluding with the major corporations. Even if climate change is false I am still not a fan of pollution as a whole and I still think a move toward cleaner renewable energy is a good thing.

[aslkahuna]

You must realize that the US has no choice these days but to work with China on issues that affect both Countries since China owns the US.

Steve

[Vandy]

Even if climate change is false I am still not a fan of pollution as a whole and I still think a move toward cleaner renewable energy is a good thing.

This is something I'm big on. It amazes me the amount of resistance to paying a little more for energy in order to have a cleaner place to live. I guess if people can't see the pollution, they just don't care.

[superjames1992]

The problem with these negotiations is that it's obvious China, India, and Russia aren't going to do jack about CO2 emissions. So even if Europe and the US did cut back, it wouldn't do any good as China, Russia, India, and other developing nations continued to pollute more and more.

A climate treaty without the US or China included is going to be a failure just as Kyoto was.

[JBG]

good .....the political push to capitalize on a short lived period of warming and hysteria should be stymied.....and since we are in the den of deception (politics) off course it was stymied thru corruption. The means behind this push for "change" was always $$ and power....so long as the world is round.

Of course, yours and my agenda is quite different from that of the slimeball Assange. You and I think AGW is a crock and one way or another it's a waste of money to pursue. And we relish Obama's hypocrisy on display.

On the other hand Assange wants us tied up in regulatory knots.

[skierinvermont]

Of course, yours and my agenda is quite different from that of the slimeball Assange. You and I think AGW is a crock and one way or another it's a waste of money to pursue. And we relish Obama's hypocrisy on display.

On the other hand Assange wants us tied up in regulatory knots.

Saying AGW is a crock is analogous to saying nuclear physics is a crock.. kind of funny when laypeople think they understand science.