‘NSA spied on climate negotiations in 2009’

The American secret service NSA spied on other countries during the negotiations for a climate treaty in 2009. That reports a Danish newspaper. In this way, the American negotiators knew in advance about the plans of their negotiating partners.

During the negotiations on the climate treaty in Copenhagen, the NSA spied on host country Denmark, among other things, the Danish newspaper Information reports on its website. The newspaper was given access to documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The NSA is said to have collaborated with the secret services of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in spying on the climate negotiations.

The purpose of the espionage was to provide the negotiators at the climate conference with ‘valuable insights’ into the preparation, the negotiation strategy and the position of the negotiating partners. The espionage at the climate negotiations underlines that the American secret service, like that of the United Kingdom, among others, does not only use espionage for national security.

According to sources from the Danish newspaper, Danish government negotiators have already noticed that their American colleagues were ‘surprisingly well’ informed. “I was often dismayed at what they knew,” said a Danish negotiator. If the NSA has spied by, for example, breaking into computers to collect the documents, the service has thereby violated Danish law, a lawyer emphasizes.