MEDIA REACTION: CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 001169

STATE FOR SCA/INSB, PM/CBM, PM/PRO

STATE FOR SCA/PPD, PA/RRU

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: KMDR, KPAO, PGOV, OPRC, NP
SUBJ: MEDIA REACTION: CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT

1. SUMMARY: Nepal's major English daily The
Kathmandu Post (circulation: 30,000) published an
OP-ED on December 28 titled "Double-crossed in
Copenhagen" that said "big Asian brothers" China and
India betrayed poor and vulnerable countries like
Nepal to shake hands with the United States. The
article, written by a Nepali journalist working for
the BBC in London, said that in the name of climate
change, the summit was a venue for reshaping global
politics. It argued that since no specific carbon
reduction target was made, temperatures will rise
mainly because of the United States and emerging
economies like China and India, which will mean more
climate change-induced calamities for developing
countries.

EXCERPTS:

2. "Christmas and year-end holidays have not kept
the world's major global players from defending
themselves for what they did to fail the climate
summit in Copenhagen last week. A good 10 days since
the big bang ended in a whimper, they are still
engaged in a blame game. U.S. President Barack Obama
has come out with his explanation on how he had to
'rescue the summit'."

3. "It [the summit] rather became a venue for
striking backroom deals and reshaping global
politics, all in the name of climate. Big brothers
from almost all the regions ganged up as they did
not want a deal to happen mainly on economic and, to
some extent, strategic grounds. Unsurprisingly, the
U.S. led the gang."

4. "No wonder then that the Americans were for a
deal that would be outside Kyoto and the UN climate
regime. But how come China and India, that so much
advocated both the Kyoto Protocol and the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change, shook hands
with the U.S.?"

5. "No doubt the developed countries other than the
U.S. too had their vested interests like pushing a
market mechanism in the fight against climate change
and getting the developing world to make emission
cuts while securing their own carbon spaces in the
atmosphere. But at least, they had specific targets
- even that would have been outside the Kyoto
regime. The U.S. did not want that, and so too, it
later emerged, the BASIC countries. Left out in the
cold are the poor and most vulnerable countries like
Nepal thanks to the double-cross by their G77 de
facto leaders China and India."

6. "Now that there is no specific carbon reduction
target, temperatures will rise mainly because of the
U.S. and emerging economies like China and India;
and that will mean even more climate change-induced
calamities. Worse yet, the accord has not drawn any
mechanism to channel climate funds which will make
adapting to the inevitable climate change impacts
almost impossible. So much for the solidarity
between the developing countries led by the two big
Asian brothers."

BERRY