By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 8 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came to “launch,” as the UN puts it, the“Pathways to Deep Decarbonization” report at 11 am on July 8 it was a decidedly one-way launch: Ban spoke but did not take any questions.
Why not?
Ban's public schedule did not list another appointment until 12:50 pm, with new envoy on Western Sahara Kim Bolduc. So why not?
Nevertheless the French minister and ambassador on climate negotiations Laurence Tubiana who remained behind thanked Ban. Inner City Press asked Tubiana what relation, if any, there is between the 15 country-specific sections of the report and the governments of those countries.
Tubiana began that “each country was independent” -- then Jeffrey Sachs, also on the panel, corrected her, Country not government. She agreed, saying that later these reports would spark a dialogue in countries, including with the governments.
Inner City Press asked about countries -- governments -- effectively censoring 70% of the “Summary for Policymakers” of the most recent IPCC report. Will that process be allowed to continue in connection with the climate negotiations upcoming in France? We'll see.
On nuclear power, it was Sachs who spoke and not the two representatives of France, global promoter - and miner - for nuclear power.
The UN as usual set-aside the first question for its UN Censorship Alliance, whose head Pamela Falk asked about a proposal by Henry “Hank” Paulson, whom she identified as a former US Treasury Secretary. Uh, and Goldman Sachs, no? The new Free UN Coalition for Access then thanked the panelist -- Ban Ki-moon as noted had already left -- and asked about governments' censorship.
At the end Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric delayed the noon briefing for fifteen minutes to allow French ambassador Tubiana to interactive with... France 24, among others. The Free UN Coalition for Access has asked that the policy of when and for whom / which countries UN briefings are delayed or postponed should be transparent and even-handed. Watch this site.
