14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been many months since it was revealed that the NSA has spied on the United Nations, and now, new documents reveal the GCHQ had spied on two consecutive International climate summits of the United Nations, back in 2009 and 2011. The Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has just announced that an investigation will take place.
According to Snowden documents published by the Swedish site Dagbladet Information, British spies had snooped on delegations’ membership lists, as well as on the kit passes to discern which were the negotiation positions of various states. This gave the British the upper hand at the negotiations table later on.
Speaking to Danish television, the UN Secretary General said the matter was a UN issue because Copenhagen was a UN conference. “All diplomatic information is inviolable. If there has been any breach… they should be investigated. UN information should be protected in its entire confidentiality,” Ban said.
The presentation revealed that snooping on the climate talks was a serious intelligence priority that had been set back in 2007, a few years before the espionage presented in the documents actually took place.
The implications for those involved
The GCHQ’s snooping activity translated itself into a report that was delivered to unnamed UK government officers in 2011. The file states that the officer reported to “customers,” which includes the prime minister’s office, the foreign secretary and diplomats, the Department of International Development, the business department, and the Treasury.
Ed Miliband, current Labour Party leader, held the position of energy and climate change secretary in 2009 and let the British delegation at the UN Climate Summit in 2009. In 2011, the UK delegation was led by Chris Huhne, former Liberal Democrat secretary of state for energy and climate change.
While Miliband’s party refused to comment on the UN investigation, refraining from saying whether he had any kind of knowledge about the MI5 and GCHQ’s activities. Huhne, on the other hand, admitted to knowing they had GCHQ support for their own secure connections, but not about the spying practices.
International climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth, Asad Rehman, told the Guardian that it’s been a long-known fact that rich governments have bullied and bribed poorer developing countries to get their way in the climate negotiations. “We can now add spying to that list,” she said. She added that it’s morally and politically bankrupt for the UK government to try and undermine the voices of those most affected by climate change in calling for more action.