Thursday, December 9, 2010

WikiLeaks cable notes Vatican commitment to accord on climate change

The Vatican was committed to getting countries aligned with the Copenhagen Accord on the climate change, according to the first Vatican cable to appear on the WikiLeaks website.

The confidential cable claimed a Vatican official at the Secretariat of State would support U.S. government "efforts to have countries associate themselves with the Copenhagen Accord by the January 31 deadline" as well as "encourage other countries discreetly to associate themselves with the Accord as opportunities arise."

The cable, dated Jan. 21, 2010, came from the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican and was sent to the U.S. government's Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Science.

It was one of more than 250,000 alleged diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks said it would be releasing over the coming months. Sources in Rome said 850 documents concern communications between the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican.

The cable, titled "'Green' pope supports US path forward from Copenhagen," was based in part on discussions an embassy official had with Paolo Conversi, a Vatican official at the Secretariat of State, and with U.S. Msgr. James Reinert of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

The one-page document made no mention of Pope Benedict XVI's Jan. 11 speech to diplomats in which he was critical of the lack of real commitment to mitigating climate change.

In a lengthy speech, he told ambassadors that have diplomatic relations with the Vatican, including U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Miguel Diaz, that he shared "the growing concern caused by economic and political resistance to combating the degradation of the environment."

for more news : wikileaks cable notes

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