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Berlin-based leftist daily TAZ here reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel isn’t going to bother attending the Ban Ki-Moon initiated climate conference in New York this coming September. The TAZ adds this has been “confirmed by a government spokesman“.

Moon personally invited all world leaders, asking them to attend with “ambition and responsibility” in order to lay the groundwork for the Paris 2015 climate conference where world leaders are to sign onto a binding agreement requiring industrialized countries to drastically cut back CO2 emissions by 2050, and thus serving as the successor agreement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The TAZ writes that even Presidents Barack Obama and Francois Hollande will be attending.

Merkel’s decision to snub the event is likely another sign that efforts to forge a climate agreement are already dead in water. The TAZ writes:

Ultimately only Europe and very few other countries remain on board. Canada for example has opted out. Japan and Russia are also no longer taking part.”

Merkel “burying global climate agreement”

According to the TAZ, Merkel will not be attending because of “scheduling reasons“, but added that Germany will be represented by “high-ranking” officials.

Activists groups are howling in response to Merkel’s snub. Germany’s leading global warming hysterical blog klimaretter here accuses Merkel of “burying the global climate agreement”.

Klimaretter adds that Brazil is expected to play a key role in facilitating an agreement but that the prospects of making progress look dim since negotiations suffered a huge setback in March:

The representatives of 28 EU countries postponed to October the decision on their mutual climate targets for 2030. That means: The EU will decide their new climate targets first after the Ban-Ki-Moon conference [New York]. This is a hefty setback for climate diplomacy: Of course the Brazilians aren’t going to be putting any suitable climate targets on the table when they do not even know what the Europeans have in their pockets.”