Pressure on poor at Copenhagen led to failure, not diplomatic wrangling

[CHIMO]

The failure of negotiators to agree a significant deal in Copenhagen was not due to two weeks of frenetic diplomatic wrangling, it was the culmination of years of attempted bullying and bribery by rich nations, in order to steamroller the developed world into accepting a deal that was not in their interests.

The EU for example made sustained attempts to influence and pressure developing nations – something that only served to increase their cohesion. They bribed where they could, promising the same recycled financing and maybe more to come if countries bent to their demands. And they bullied when they could not bribe.

The UK financed workshops in selected vulnerable countries and deployed climate envoys. One of its envoys told intransigent negotiators that the UK would mobilise a group of vulnerable countries to pressure the major developing countries – such as China, Brazil and India – into committing to emissions reductions, contrary to their obligations under the climate treaty.

Meanwhile, everybody waited to see which way the US would go. The whole process went into slow motion until the new US administration took over early in 2009. The US did begin to engage, but only to make more noise in the negotiations, dampening hopes for a US emissions reduction target. It promised recycled financing, most of it to be spent domestically, and above all warned that everything depended on US congressional approval. This ensured nothing would happen until mid- to late-2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/dec/23/g77-copenhagen-bernaditas-de-castro-muller