In December this year, Copenhagen will host the top UN climate meeting, at which a new international agreement needs to be reached. This past Friday, the Danish press reported that the driving force behind "Copenhagen," climate minister Connie Hedegaard's "right-hand man," has left his post as Denmark's chief negotiator, effective immediately.
Friday's Danish headlines suggested he left in protest and in rage over internal disagreements, and that Becker is the victim of a power struggle between the prime minister's office and the climate ministry.
Becker and Hedegaard, Jyllands Posten
Climate spokespersons from opposition parties suspect the ouster is a sign that the prime minister's office is assuming control of the climate negotiations--overriding the climate ministry--in order to pursue less ambitious climate goals.
DR, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, reports that alleged irregularities in Becker's expense reporting contributed to his removal. But the opposition doesn't buy it. Climate spokesperson for the Socialist People's Party, Anne Grethe Holmsgaard, doubts the administration would push Becker out over restaurant bills this late in the game. Climate spokesperson for the Red-Green Alliance, Per Klausen, agrees, calling for an explanation from Hedegaard. By Sunday afternoon, Hedegaard had only called the situation unfortunate and declined to comment on specifics.
The climate spokesperson for the largest opposition party, the Social Democrats, Mette Gjerskov, regrets Becker's departure. She agrees with the administration that there are other good people who will fill in, but sees the move as paring away quality support for Hedegaard at the top: Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the relatively new prime minister does not have extensive experience or a broad network to rely on; furthermore, the far-right Danish People's Party, on whom the minority administration depends for parliamentary support, have put their anti-science agenda on display, ridiculing the administration's focus on climate, in the lead up to Copenhagen, embarrassing the government.
Thomas Becker first voiced the idea of Copenhagen seeking to host the pivotal COP15 in what reporters describe as the almost giddy afterglow of COP11 (Conference of Parties 11), in 2005. In a Montreal hotel lobby, a group of Danish government officials celebrated the sense of progress. In his spoken remarks, the Canadian environmental minister, Stéphane Dion, had expressly thanked the Danish delegation for their unique contribution to bringing leaders together. Hedegaard had recently launched the first summit in her and Becker's brain child series "the Greenland Dialogues," a series of informal field trips organized for environmental ministers and other leading decision makers. Writes Politiken: But even [in this cozy setting of optimism, Becker's] proposal seemed virtually crazy:
"What if we were to host a COP?" he asked.
The rest is history. Becker reportedly managed to convince Brazil to seek to host COP16 in 2010 rather than the pivotal COP15. As the story goes, Becker and Hedegaard sold the idea to their then-prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen (no relation), by focusing on enhancing Denmark's international status and by tying the climate issue to Danish security-of-supply concerns. They also pushed for, belatedly, picking up
where the former, Social Democrat, administration had left off, on sustainable energy policies, in order to support presenting Denmark as a model nation.
Over the course of little more than a year, Hedegaard and Becker not only secured COP15 for Copenhagen, but also transformed the former "climate skeptic," Fogh, to an apparent climate advocate. (Fogh now heads NATO and recently directed NATO intelligence agencies to properly integrate climate change security risks into defense strategies and announced the greening of NATO headquarters. Link in English.)
On Sunday, the Danish government named Becker's successor, diplomat Steffen Smidt, who heads the Center for Global Challenges in the foreign ministry and is the ministry's representative on climate change issues.
Denmark's new chief negotiator, Steffen Smidt, www.um.dk
Also on Sunday, Danish press reported that the 40-member staff of the Global Climate division at the climate ministry had complained of insufferable work conditions, already back in May. The head of the Socialist People's Party, Villy Søvndal, called the smearing of Becker and the "miserable" work conditions "unprofessional and malicious":
"The administration's spin machine is now using all its firepower to malign the climate ministry's now-former top negotiator. If this is --as it appears to be-- a power struggle between the prime minster's office and the climate ministry, then the former has once more exhibited a total lack of judgment."
Sunday evening, climate minister Connie Hedegaard called for an end to the mud throwing, seeming to refer to the smearing of Becker as well as the power struggle allegations:
"I don't think I've ever had as close a working relation with the prime minister....I would be lying if I didn't admit that there have been controversies; I've brought people from the climate ministry, they're supposed to work with people in the prime minister's office--it's a clash of cultures...the pressure on all of us is extraordinary....but throwing mud like this will get us nowhere."
Connie Hedegaard on DR, October 11, 2009
Following Hedegaard's appearance on the DR Sunday evening news show, the official COP15 site reported on Becker's resignation (link in English).
UPDATE Oct 12 2:14pm:
Reuters covers the story.
UPDATE Oct 12 7:51pm:
Mother Jones covers the story.
Also: Did Becker resign or get fired?
Maybe both. Becker resigned Friday, effective January 31, 2010. The division head, Thomas Egebo, then made it effective immediately.
Becker's union said the expense reporting irregularities were not grounds for his dismissal but that he left in order not to be a distraction.
