Draft agreement leaked from the UN claims world leaders ‘paralysed’ the summit in Copenhagen 

01.06.2010 

A letter leaked to the Guardian from the United Nations’ climate chief, Yvo de Boer, suggests that the Copenhagen climate summit failed due to the presence of 130 world leaders.

The revelations were made in a letter to colleagues’ just days after the summit broke up in December.

Persuaded by Britain and other countries to go to Denmark, the word leaders were expecting to put the final touches to a historic global agreement to limit emissions. Instead, they arrived to a summit that was, according to De Boer, ‘seething with mistrust.’

De Boer who is leaving the UN framework in the next few months, suggests that the political debacle began when Denmark presented a one-sided draft agreement to selected countries just before the start of the meeting. The draft agreement favoured the US and other richer countries. Aware of this unbalance, the UN, tried to stop it, but failed.  

De Boer wrote, ‘the presence of world leaders such Barack Obama and Wen Jiabao further affected the talks. They had been expected to galvanise the summit and steamroller opposition to an agreement, but in fact proved counterproductive.’

Read the full article on the Guardian website.