So, Obama Ruined Copenhagen! Wrong It Was China

Someone once described China as a country that doesn't like to be told what do to. Just glazing at this past decade is proof enough. Told or asked to improve its human rights record upon being awarded the Olympics the opposite occurred. With the Yuan artificially over valued by the Chinese government the U.S. dollar even before the financial collapse of last year was losing ground to the worlds major currencies the U.S. Treasury Department asked the Chinese to revalue its currency they refused. Time and again China when even asked to contribute to the simplest measures which offer help or relief to others they have said no. That is exactly what China did at the COP15 conference in Denmark.

After two weeks and meetings at the ministerial level to work out an agreement on how to reduce the worlds CO2 out put China made sure that the conference was a failure by refusing to allow any target numbers, numbers which had been agreed to by the participating nations which would lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions to be placed in the final document at the conferences end. Remember that several countries including the United States which had previously shied away from concrete numbers on CO2 emissions changed course pledged to reduce their emissions through concrete numbers and target dates.

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. The failure was "the inevitable result of rich countries refusing adequately and fairly to shoulder their overwhelming responsibility", said Christian Aid. "Rich countries have bullied developing nations," fumed Friends of the Earth International.

It just kept getting better and better.

What I saw was profoundly shocking. The Chinese premier, Wen Jinbao, did not deign to attend the meetings personally, instead sending a second-tier official in the country's foreign ministry to sit opposite Obama himself. The diplomatic snub was obvious and brutal, as was the practical implication: several times during the session, the world's most powerful heads of state were forced to wait around as the Chinese delegate went off to make telephone calls to his "superiors".

Shifting the blame

To those who would blame Obama and rich countries in general, know this: it was China's representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. "Why can't we even mention our own targets?" demanded a furious 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.