Making Friends and Influencing Events

"No nation is immune and every nation has a responsibility to do its part. You will recall at the beginning I said the U.S. and Australia have a lot in common. Well one of the things we have in common is we produce a lot of carbon … which means we’ve got to step up."
"The reason that’s so important [the Beijing 'deal'] is because if China as it develops adapts the same per capita carbon emissions as advanced economies like the U.S. or Australia, this planet doesn’t stand a chance because they've got a lot more people."
"So them setting up a target sends a powerful message to the world that all countries, whether you are a developed country, a developing country or somewhere in between, you've got to be able to overcome old divides, look squarely at the science and reach a strong global climate agreement next year."
"And if China and the US can agree on this then the world can agree on this, we can get this done and it is necessary for us to get it done."
"I know that there has been a healthy debate in this country about it. Here in the Asia Pacific nobody has more at stake when it comes to thinking about, and then acting on, climate change."
"Here a climate that increases in temperature will mean more extreme and frequent storms, more flooding, rising seas that submerge Pacific Islands."
"Here in Australia it means longer droughts, more wildfires. The incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened. Worldwide this past summer was the hottest on record."
U.S. President Barak Obama, G20, Australia

US President Barack Obama at the Brisbane G20 summit. Photo: Andrew Meares

"There was an issue regarding his statement about the Great Barrier Reef, and I can understand the Queensland government's concern because we have committed significant resources to preserve and conserve the reef."
"We have demonstrated world's best practice ... to ensure the Great Barrier Reef is preserved for generations to come."
"I just felt that the briefing that we had provided to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior was not reflected  in President Obama's speech, and I thought it was important that he actually had the facts and the detail of what we are doing to support the preservation and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef." 
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop chairs the UN Security Council meeting in New York overnight. Photo: Trevor Gollens

Seems that President Obama, the prime mover-and-shaker of the G20, raised some hackles in his efforts to burnish his environmental credentials at the express of his very closest allies on the world stage. Seems that President Obama doesn't very much care about the bruised sensibilities of anyone other than perhaps, himself...?

The Australian newspaper appeared to feel the snub where it seems that the president shrugged off the advice of his own diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Canberra to go on an environmental snit that would highlight his disaffection with the efforts of Australia, among others. And nor did he give Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott the conventional courtesy of a heads-up on a speech he delivered to university students.

The Abbott administration was asked to refer an audience for a presidential address by Mr. Obama before the G20 summit in Brisbane. The president was specifically interested in an audience comprised of young people. Diplomatic protocol be damned, the White House skirted the courtesy of handing the host government a copy of the speech, much less a summary of its address

So the students and faculty at the University of Queensland were enthralled at the President of the great United States of America criticizing their government over its decision-making on climate change, a matter of intense internal debate in the country. Perhaps Australians in general, the university student population no exception, are unaware of the U.S.'s sad history on the environment in its own bailiwick.

But there he was, the great man, accusing Australia of being insufficiently energy efficient. And horror of horrors! As a result of Australia's poor attention to green issues of huge importance to the world, his two daughters and his grandchildren of the future would be unable to enjoy the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef; destroyed, alas, through the disordered inaction of the Australian government.

Mr Abbott and his government were not amused. Even veiled critiques come out sounding what they are meant to be; gross insults to the integrity of another country. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop from New York with Australia holding the rotating chairmanship of the UN Security Council for the month, inwardly seething, mildly rebuked Mr. Obama for his lack of familiarity with her country's work safeguarding the Great Barrier Reef for Mr. Obama's children and grandchildren.

And nor did he exempt Canada on this auspicious occasion when everyone was gathered and attention turned briefly and sourly toward the bad boy of the gathering, President Vladimir Putin, to jab Canada over the XL pipeline. A persistent annoyance to President Obama, with Canada's insistence on the no-brainer issue of validating its need. A need, he emphasized, that would benefit only Canada.

Rather overlooking that it would be of huge benefit to Canada's southern neighbours offering the U.S. and its allies energy security, reducing dependence on oil and gas from the Middle East, Venezuela, and Russia, in due time. According to the Washington Post, Mr. Obama blooped on so many irregular 'facts' speaking of the Canadian pipeline the newspaper prepared to award him three 'Pinocchios'. Well earned.

The two countries most in collegial lockstep with the United States on major international issues, left to nurse their bruises. While China threatens its neighbours, Russia marauds through Ukraine, threatening the Baltic states and Poland, and the Middle East is erupting into an unstoppable firestorm of tragic proportions even as Iran plots its nuclear trajectory...

What manner of legacy is President Obama so consumed with?