TURKEY UNSURE IF WILL ASSOCIATE WITH COPENHAGEN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000089 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/19/2020 TAGS: KGHG SENV ENRG TU SUBJECT: TURKEY UNSURE IF WILL ASSOCIATE WITH COPENHAGEN ACCORD REF: SECSTATE Classified By: DCM Doug Silliman for reasons 1.4 b,d ¶1. (C) DCM and Econ Counselor delivered reftel demarche January 15 to Mithat Rende, MFA Acting Director General for Economic Affairs. Rende said Turkey has not yet decided whether it will associate with the Copenhagen Accord nor whether it would inscribe any targets or actions. Rende explained that Turkey is in a unique situation on climate change. It originally was listed as an annex one and annex two country in the Kyoto treaty. Turkey quickly realized this was a mistake. Although it is an OECD country, Rende said all data indicates that Turkey is a developing country with regards to industry and energy -- Turkey's primary energy consumption is one-third of the EU average, and its emissions are one-third of the OECD and one-half of the EU average. During the 2001 Marrakesh meeting, Turkey was dropped from annex two. It did not succeed in getting itself removed from annex one, Rende said, but Turkey's special circumstances were recognized by the conference. ¶2. (C) Turkey's primary goal at Copenhagen was to obtain recognition of Turkey's unique situation in the final agreement. Rende said he met with Connie Hedgaard and she understood the GOT position and helped incorporate the GOT position into a draft paper that the GOT expected to be the basis for the Copenhagen Accord. Instead, Rende said, the Accord was negotiated without consulting Turkey and did not take Turkey into account. GOT lawyers are reviewing the Accord text to see if it reflects -- or can be adapted to -- Turkey's needs. While the GOT is happy the U.S. was able to convince China and India to participate, Rende said, Turkey,s bottom line is that "we are not going to finance China via a document we were excluded from. We are a developing country and should enjoy the financial and technology transfer benefits." ¶3. (C) Rende said Turkey was working on setting a climate change goal. The EU just opened the Environment Chapter in its accession negotiations and will be pressing Turkey for a target. However, Turkey's primary goal is supplying electricity and potable water for all Turkish citizens. The easiest way to reach that goal is to develop Turkey's 11.5 billion tons of coal. "We have to balance these objectives." ¶4. (U) Rende's comments on energy are reported septel. Jeffrey "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"