US spied on UN climate summit, NSA leaks show

cop15.jpg

EU commissioners and experts expressed bewilderment after "worrying" revelations on Thursday (30 January) that the US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on heads of state during the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in late 2009.

According to documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, and published by the Danish newspaper Information, the agency collected intelligence about other countries’ positions before and during the Copenhagen negotiations, which failed to reach a binding agreement.

The goal at the UN climate summit, known as COP15, had been to pen a global agreement on CO2 emissions reduction, that could replace the Kyoto Protocol. This was designed to slow global warming which a scientific consensus holds will have disastrous consequences for life on earth, if unabated.

Some called the summit "the most important of its kind since the end of World War II" because more than a hundred government leaders participated. Never before had so many heads of state been gathered at a UN event.

But the leaked documents show that the US felt under pressure because of its role as the largest historic emitter of carbon dioxide. The NSA's focus in relation to climate change thus mutated into spying on other countries to collect intelligence supporting US interests, rather than preventing future climate catastrophes, the documents show.

While many countries formulated promises that were increasingly ambitious, the Obama administration never moderated its position. The Americans only offered a 4-6% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to 1990 levels, despite the fact that the UN recommendation for developed nations was 25-40%. As the agreement ended up allowing individual climate pledges, the 4-6% reduction became the American climate goal.

According to Information, it's almost certain that the Americans obtained a Danish draft proposal, sparking outrage among some countries, ahead of the conference. This was eventually leaked to the news agency Reuters and the British newspaper the Guardian.

Many Danish officials and negotiators had no idea that they had been spied on by the NSA, but reported that the Americans seemed "very self-assured," according to Information.

"Obviously, if you know the strategies of the other countries, their thoughts on the negotiations and their bottom line in terms of how far they will go, you have a huge advantage," one source said.

Another commented that it was "incomprehensible" that the NSA would spy on COP15 as the climate conference had nothing to do with preventing terrorism.

'Digital arms race'

EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard, who was then Denmark's minister for climate and the government's chief negotiator, told the newspaper Politiken in a short email that if the new information was true, it was "upsetting".

Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said that the revelations, if true, were "worrying".

"We should try to avoid a digital arms race. Those who have the capacity to spy will always try to do so. It is after all one of the world's oldest businesses," the commissioner said.

Many developing countries were also outraged by the news, according to the Guardian.

"Would you play poker with someone who can see your cards? Spying on one another like this is absolutely not on. When someone has an upper hand is very disconcerting. There should be an assurance in negotiations like this that powerful players are not going to gain undue advantage with technological surveillance," Martin Knor, an advisor to developing countries at the summit said.

"For negotiations as complex as these we need maximum goodwill and trust. It is absolutely critical. If there is anything that prevents a level playing field, that stops negotiations being held on equal grounds. It disrupts the talks," Knor added.

Jairam Ramesh, the then-Indian environment minister and a key player in the talks, commented: "Why the hell did they do this and at the end of this, what did they get out of Copenhagen? They got some outcome but certainly not the outcome they wanted. It was completely silly of them."

Read more with Euractiv

Subscribe now to our newsletter EU Elections Decoded

Meena Raman, negotiations expert from the Malaysian-based Third World Network, told the Guardian: "The UN climate talks are supposed to be about building trust – that's been under threat for years because of the US backward position on climate action – these revelations will only crack that trust further."

"Fighting climate change is a global struggle, and these revelations clearly show that the US government is more interested in crassly protecting a few vested interests," said Brandon Wu, senior policy analyst with development organisation ActionAid in the United States.

World leaders delivered an agreement in Copenhagen in 2009 that left Europeans - and the developing world - disappointed, as it failed to commit rich or poor countries to any greenhouse gas emission reductions.

The face-saving deal, dubbed the 'Copenhagen Accord', failed to produce a binding agreement to tackle climate change, which Europe had said it expected prior to the opening of the UN conference.

The resulting text agreed that deep cuts in global emissions "will be required" and that countries would take action to maintain the global temperature below two degrees Celsius.

Supporter


Life Terra

Funded by the LIFE Programme of the EU

The content of this publication represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The Agency does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.



Subscribe to our newsletters

Subscribe