A calculated leak

A calculated leak

It's very rare in journalism and politics that there's an accidential leak.  Normally documents find their way to their intended recipients for a reason.  And that's what's happened here in Copenhagen.

The leak was of the so-called 'Danish Text', a set of proposals which the developed countries - the world's richest nations -  intended to table in the last few days of the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change. The idea of harmony, of 192 nations moving towards agreement, was seriously damaged by the document.

Among the proposals was the idea that the UN would be sidelined in future climate change negotiations; that the Kyoto protocol, the world's only legally binding deal on emission cuts, would essentially be left by the side of the road. Control of the climate change finance would be handed to the World Bank, and poor countries would be tied to 1.44 tonnes of carbon emissions per person by 2050, which rich countries would have a much higher level, 2.67 tonnes.

This was giving to the rich and taking from the poor.

The Danes, who are chairing the conference, said there had been many discussions and many ideas had been jotted down on paper and this was nothing formal.  But it was thought they had drafted the document with the British and the Americans. 

The reaction from the developing countries was predictably angry. Lumumba Di-Aping, the chairman of the G77 group of developing nations, and China warned: "We will not sign an unequitable deal. We will not accept a deal that condemns 80 per cent of the world's population to further suffering and injustice". 

So who was behind the leak? Almost certainly countries that feared the big guns were about to cut them out of any deal and push forward with a plan produced at the last minute. It did what it was meant to do - spark enough anger to kill it stone dead and send a warning that this wasn't even to be considered.

This was a very calculated and clever leak.