Negotiation or Dictate

Editorial:
The Guardian newspaper in the UK received an email with a file found on the computer of a “European” hotel, which you can read below.

Yes we know the British don’t really live in Europe, rather Europe lives off the British coastline, but wait I digress. Back to the negotiations in Copenhagen and now in Bonn…

Are the UN negotiations really negotiations at all?One can question the validity of the “strategy document” (copied below) but it does ring true. Presumably to be sent between different agencies of the US State Dept. to coordinate the preaching to the less than convinced, making sure they are all with the program on the Copenhagen Accord (CA for short) a watering down of the  “Danish Draft” that appeared out-of-th-blue in Copenhagen. This draft was about as Danish as a McDonald’s pastry.

The leaked strategic paper, if it is in fact real, is a combination of corporate management of expectations with a radical (for corporates) P.R. strategy behind it. Including planned leaks for disinformation, the use of podcasts (oh how modern) and the infiltartion into alterntive media, it has a focus on disinformation outside the US wit atak-it-or-leave-it approach. Goebbels, the inventor of propoganda, would have been proud!

Those of us that were there in Copenhagen remember the hopeless confusion in the last days of COP-15 with deadlock in the negotiations. Then, suddenly, two strange events happen around the time of the arrival of the Presidents. First the Danish President kicks out his own minister, Connie Hedegaard, and replaces her as head/host of  ’Negotiations’. Then a document appears from behind closed doors (outside of the COP/UN procedures a non-paper the result of non-meetings) and “Heaven be praised!” we have an agreement!  Or do we? Since December the US State department has been busy trying t ram this down the throat of the nearly 200 countries that need to accept it for it to replace Kyoto.

Two problems:

• the technical people say that even if implemented as offered it won’t work!
• there are a few countries that know this and don’t have the luxury to play aid politics and accept what the state department put on the table.

So it is off to Bolivia with us, part of maybe 15,000 international and local voices airing some alternatives. None of us, I hope accept the CA nor should you if you love this pearl of a planet of ours.

I shall leave you to read the startegy document below and draw your own conclusions. Also you may possibly be interested in the Indian negotiator’s statement in this week’s meetins in Bonn reported in the the Guardian:

“Here you have an agreement [CA] that frankly has no legal status. It is useful, but you cannot use the Copenhagen accord to impose your will on the rest of the world,” he said. “Especially by a country that was party to the Kyoto protocol and never ratified it.”

Text of leaked document purportedly
from a US foreign services operative:

Strategic communications objectives

1. Reinforce the perception that the US is constructively engaged in UN negotiations in an effort to produce a global regime to combat climate change. This includes support for a symmetrical and legally binding treaty.
2. Manage expectations for Cancun – Without owning the message, advance the narrative that while a symmetrical legally binding treaty in Mexico is unlikely, solid progress can be made on the six or so main elements.
3. Create a clear understanding of the CA’s standing and the importance of operationalising ALL elements.
4. Build and maintain outside support for the administration’s commitment to meeting the climate and clean energy challenge despite an increasingly difficult political environment to pass legislation.
5. Deepen support and understanding from the developing world that advanced developing countries must be part of any meaningful solution to climate change including taking responsibilities under a legally binding treaty.

Media outreach (c.f. Goebbles)

• Continue to conduct interviews with print, TV and radio outlets driving the climate change story.
• Increase use of off-the-record conversations.
• Strengthen presence in international media markets during trips abroad. Focus efforts on radio and television markets.
• Take greater advantage of new media opportunities such as podcasts to advance US position in the field bypassing traditional media outlets.
• Consider a series of policy speeches/public forums during trips abroad to make our case directly to the developing world.

Key outreach efforts Comprehensive and early outreach to policy makers, key stakeholders and validators is critical to broadening support for our positions in the coming year.

• Prior to the 9-11 April meeting in Bonn it would be good for Todd to meet with leading NGOs. This should come in the form of 1:1s and small group sessions.
• Larger group sessions, similar to the one held at CAP prior to Copenhagen, will be useful down the line, but more intimate meetings in the spring are essential to building the foundation of support. Or at the very least, disarming some of the harsher critics.