CancunWatch 3 - British government accused of cosying up to big business in Cancun

Kate Blagojevic, used to be press officer

In John Vidal's blog post in the Guardian today,  he gives a real sense of the bizarreness of this conference with its heat, vast military operation and the huge number of bus rides you have to take to get to the Moon and back.

He also writes that WDM and Carbon Trade Watch are furious over the fact that the UK government has subsidised british big businesses' trip to Cancun and has invited businesses to lobby them by organising dinners and receptions promising access to high level British representatives.

And furious we are. If we needed yet more proof that the government prioritises the UK's business and trade interests, we got it, when an email landed in my inbox from a colleague with 'OUTRAGEOUS' in the subject line. It was an email invitation from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office inviting businesses to a special trade mission in Cancun as a side event to the negotiations. The basic package that is 'heavily subsidised by the British government' includes: access to Chris Huhne, other 'high level British government representatives', both Mexican and British senior level officials, businesses and politicians and accommodation costing a reasonable £1500.

An example of how these kinds of trade missions can be used to promote false solutions that do nothing for the climate but simply benefit British business is a trade mission to Ghana and Nigeria to promote Clean Development Mechanism in Feb 2010. This saw Shell promoting its gas flaring reduction project in Niger Delta.

Gas flaring is *already* illegal in Nigeria (but Shell and others carry on regardless), so the CDM project would pay Shell to "stop" doing what it shouldn't be doing anyway, whilst analysis of what they'd actually do suggests the project is more about expanding capacity for their natural gas division in Nigeria.

And whilst the status quo remains that businness lobbyists and government eat canapes and drink tequillas together, and civil society is essentially gagged, the outcomes will always be that solutions to the climate crisis will not benefit ordinary people but will rake in profits for big business.

 Kate Blagojevic

follow me on twitter from Cancun @wdmnews