Copenhagen climate summit update: Uproar over 'Danish text' leak

The UK Guardian is reporting that the second day of the UN Copenhagen climate summit erupted in even more controversy today after developing countries reacted angrily to documents that were leaked showing world leaders will be asked to sign an agreement next week that gives considerably more power to rich nations and curtails the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations.

The document, known as the Danish text, is a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment". It is believed to include the UK, US and Denmark, but has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalized.

The 'Danish text' was leaked to the Guardian, it differs from the Kyoto protocol primarily in that it doesn't call for rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, to agree to firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, but requires undeveloped nations to reduce emissions drastically before receiving financial aid from the richer nations. The draft gives control of climate change finance to the World Bank and would basically abandon the Kyoto protocol. The Kyotot protocol is the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions. The 'Danish text' shows the new agreement would require poor countries to take a multitude of actions before receiving any finincial aid to help them adapt to climate change.

According to the Guardian report, among the changes that world leaders will be asked to agree to are:

• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;

• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";

• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance;

• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.

The report goes on to say that:  

"Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations.

"It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless."

The Guardian quotes Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International, as saying: "This is only a draft but it highlights the risk that when the big countries come together, the small ones get hurting. On every count the emission cuts need to be scaled up. It allows too many loopholes and does not suggest anything like the 40% cuts that science is saying is needed."

Hill continued: "It proposes a green fund to be run by a board but the big risk is that it will run by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility [a partnership of 10 agencies including the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme] and not the UN. That would be a step backwards, and it tries to put constraints on developing countries when none were negotiated in earlier UN climate talks."

This is quite different from what we have been told would happen in Copenhagen. We have been led to believe that the summit would only produce a "statement of intent". This makes it appear as if the world leaders attending the summit hope to push a world-wide binding agreement.

Could it be that the "climategate" scandal has lit a fire under the global warming alarmists? maybe they see their house of cards collapsing quickly and are attempting to strike before it falls.

This should be of great concern to everyone who values personal freedom. The science is far from settled. The Anthropogenic Global Warming scam is designed to squash freedom and exert control. It will make a few elites extremely wealthy, and seriously affect the standard of living of everyone else. A binding agreement would mean that a world body will dictate the personal lifestyle of every individual on the planet.