On one hand while they say “Failure is not an option in Copenhagen” it appears that some things aren’t going so well internally. Perhaps a bit too much wining and dining?
As WUWT commenter “par5” points out: “Becker has left office with immediate effect after not presenting sufficient documentation for expensive restaurant bills, according to reports in the Danish media. One bill for 39 people allegedly included 37 bottles of red wine, and Becker was given a formal warning in March over travel expenses.”
http://www.rechargenews.com/business_area/politics/article195681.ece
From the COP15 website:
Denmark’s chief climate negotiator resigns
Thomas Becker, right hand of incoming COP15 president Connie Hedegaard, has been relieved of duty with immediate notice.
With less than two months to go to the UN climate conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark’s chief climate negotiator Thomas Becker has resigned from his position as deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry for Climate and Energy.
According to Danish news agency Ritzau, Becker confirms his resignation but declines to comment or give any reason for his resignation.
“Of course it’s sad that a key person in the climate negotiations has chosen to resign his position. However, it is a purely administrative matter which I therefore do not have any comments to,” says Connie Hedegaard, Minister for Climate and Energy and incoming COP15 president, according to Danish public service broadcasting network DR.
DR on Friday quoted the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Thomas Egebo as saying that “Thomas Becker has been relieved from duty with immediate notice after disagreements of a non-professional nature, matters that the ministry and Becker look differently upon”.
Becker has been instrumental in Hedegaard’s international climate diplomacy, and according to Ritzau he conceived the idea of bringing COP15 to Denmark. From 2004-2006 he was chairman of the Subsidiary Body of Implementation under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
As of Monday, Becker will be replaced by Steffen Smidt, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Smidt is an experienced diplomat and has participated in international climate negotiations for a number of years.
h/t to WUWT reader John Ratcliffe
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“dfbaskwill (06:36:19) :
According to the Danish article, a restaurant bill in BANGKOK could not be produced. Methinks there is more to the story than bar tabs and man-made global warming!”
I hope somebody got pictures…
Obviously there is more nobility to this — an important piece of the puzzle with a clear AGW angle to the story — beyond some buffoonish bureaucrat living large on the government teat.
When the true story is told, we will learn that they were sampling the new English wines from lands previously hostile to the grape. Perhaps they were drinking the last Chianti from smoking and deserted Italian vineyards that were once home to the Sangiovese varietal, or the last good Burgundy before the earth’s fever crushes the fragile pinot noir. I’m sure there’s a nobel, sorry noble, reason for such boorish behavior hidden in this story. They’re probably heroes.
I am not comfortable about the Copenhagen outcome.
Too many Green Drunk Apparatchiks who believe that failure is not an option.
Too much ambition “to take the lead”.
Too much funding to fail.
Too much infiltration.
I have seen how the Dutch and the French were conned into the Lisbon Treaty, despite a firm “No” against a more powerful EU.
Copenhagen is all about a Marxist Coup of the Free World and most of the people don’t understand what’s going on.
Much, if not everything, depends on the US Senate now.
If Crazy Kerry and a bunch of GOP Traitors like Lindsey Graham collect their 60 votes before December the game is over.
http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/opinion/11kerrygraham.html&OQ=_rQ3D2&OP=3a72309aQ2FQ3FQ5DSQ7DQ3FQ22Q51_Q2AeQ51Q51HNQ3FNQ25Q25qQ3FQ24Q25Q3FQ24Q24Q3FQ51mn9nQ519Q3FQ24Q24tSeedxeQ5C,Q5CJQ5B,HJs
Therefore, call those Senators and make them clear they will not survive the next elections.
Graham: ‘Yes We Can Pass Climate Legislation’ — ‘Work together to address an urgent crisis facing the world’
Contact numbers for GOP Sen. Graham’s DC Office – Ph. 202-224-5972 – Graham’s SC office 864-250-1417 — SC GOP HQ Ph. 803-988-8440
Hey is that a sunspot in the lower left quadrant of the magneto veiw from NASA?
For this Winter I disagree. “Mild, wet weather” depends (in the UK) on clouds developed elsewhere (darrn saarf). They have started to break up frequently this month so I am betting this behaviour will continue and will move to clearer skies in the coming months and hence cold this winter. No cloud = cold. There now, all that without a computer.
Arctic Sea Ice (Jan 2000 – May 2009)
Didn’t make a typo Andrew? ☺ ☺
Perhaps a bit too much wining and dining?
vs.
Perhaps a bit too much whining and dining?
Call Your U.S. Senator to oppose the Cap & Trade bill and the Baucas Health Care Cost Increase Bill.
U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
It only takes a minute.
Mr. Becker just run a scientific experiment. Everybody knows vineyards are being affected by climate change He wanted to know by himself the impact on wine.
🙂
“Let me make this perfectly clear.”
As it gets even colder, man will have to go to the clear stuff. Russia shows us vodka is the beverage of choice for anti-freeze.
““…One bill for 39 people allegedly included 37 bottles of red wine…”
One wonders what they were celebrating.
This wanton abuse of public funds (especially in today’s economy) is nauseating but, alas in the AGW scientific world, not surprising…”
This wasn’t a celebration, it was part of the negotiation strategy
I say UK Sceptic, any idea where this jolly bash is being held exactly in Denmark? Perhaps someone could apply some heating & ventilation expertise to the venue so that all these twits can freeze their dooh-daahs off whilst trying to come up with yet more economic suicide for what’s left of western democracy!
Paul Vaughan (23:55:36) :
“Green belts wrapped around our minds and endless red tape to keep the truth confined. […] If you could flip a switch and open your third eye …”
Good song. Good band. Might also listen to Bon Jovi’s “We Weren’t Born to Follow” so get up off your knees…
Hi Pam.
I glad to see you have no hangover.
Like my Haiku? Or is it? (Too lazy to count syllables.)
Perfectly understandable to me. They needed all that wine to drown their sorrows
for having their AGW scam busted.
@ur momisugly UK Sceptic
Go the Old Grammarians, damn fine bunch of sceptical bastards we turned out to be. I bet the AGW’ers wished they hadn’t given us such a good education. 🙂
Hi all, what’s happening with the gulf stream? Is it slowing down? Look at the map in this site!
http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/ofs/viewer.shtml?-natl-cur-0-small-rundate=latest
Is NOAA having issues with the model or has the gulf stream really stopped?
Luboš Motl makes a mockery of the Copenhagen Climate Meeting, it’s objectives, the UN and it’s contenders:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2009/10/in-search-of-coming-ice-age.html
I’m guessing the problem was not the 39 bottles of wine and the 43 gin-and-tonics. I’m guessing it was the reported 39 guests that was the problem. I’m guessing the drinks were charged to “room service” (along with a gardener’s funnel) and 39 guests in one small hotel room strained credibility (even among AGW “true believers”).
The blog An Englishman’s Castle had a YouTube video for yesterday that I feel is appropriate :
I’d be more concerned about the carbon footprint of 37 bottles of wine, not who ended up paying for them.
Ric Werme (05:15:31) : et al.,
The list of the 38 guests would be interesting, as would followups with each to see if they attended.
————————————–
I think the Sun or the News of the World should be working on the guest list for the Bangkok revelry.
Y’all are a bunch of whiners!!
When are you going to learn that sheep are not supposed to protest about small potato type issues.
Becker was a nothing.
He only mistake was actualizing the MEP (EU Parliamentarian) lifestyle (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7904886.stm) before he had become an MEP.
BTW, don’t even think about whining about how you Yanks don’t do the same thing – your speaker of the house routinely commandeers planes (anything from a Lear jet to a 757) for weekend trips home (see http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2009/mar/judicial-watch-uncovers-documents-detailing-pelosis-repeated-requests-military-travel if you don’t believe me).
This is just part of the way the world works. You need to sit down, hush up, and learn to live with it.
More of a beer man myself.
CknLitl,
What, you don’t believe our speaker of the House? She would never lie to us… would she? click
Since she holds up her hand like she’s under oath, she has to be telling the truth.
As we focus on the alcoholic escapades of the Green Zealots, it should be clear to all of your posters here that the Copenhagen Climate Meeting is not the only attempt to bring down the free world.
Watch the activities of Obama’s Czars spreading havoc virtually in every corner of the economy:
http://hypsithermal.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/obama-to-save-food-potato-supply/
In the mean time EPA is preparing to regulate CO2 via the Clean Air and Clean Water Act, thus activating intensive lobbying by industry in favor of C&T which is a relative cheaper solution compared to the EPA “solutions”.
UN “Climate Expert” Trenberth, remember this name, has started an offensive stating that Climate Skeptics are “Ignorant”:
Read all about “Big Mouth, Bad Science” here:
http://www.climatedepot.com/a/3308/Ignorant-Skeptics-UN-Scientist-Prof-Trenberth-says-only-poorly-informed-scientists-disagree-with-UN–Appeals-to-Authority-The-IPCC-has-spoken