Source: http://wikileaks.fdn.fr/cable/2008/09/08STATE93970.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 10:32:20+00:00

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¶1. (U) This is an action message. Please see paragraph 3.
¶2. (C) Summary. Missions should be prepared to assist the U.S. Delegation to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its efforts to secure a positive outcome to elections for working group co-chair positions at the IPCC Plenary being held in Geneva, August 31-September 4. USDEL is working actively to prevent the election of an Iranian scientist to the developing-nation co-chairmanship of Working Group Two, a position which would pair him with a U.S. scientist running unopposed for developed-nation co-chair of the same group. The focus of USG efforts is to support an alternate candidacy for the position, although the full slate of active candidates and their potential for election will not be known until the later stages of the plenary sessions. Curricula vitae of some of the leading candidates are at paras 6-10. End Summary.
¶3. (C) Action Request. Missions should assign a Point-of-Contact for this issue and provide phone and e-mail information to the US Mission to the UN in Geneva. USUN should appoint its own POC and relay contact information for all POCs to USDEL IPCC. In the event that USDEL requires assistance in working with counterpart delegations (e.g., coming to a consensus on a single strong alternate candidate to support), USDEL may contact Mission POCs directly, or via US Mission Geneva, to ask that Missions apprise host governments of the situation, with a view to arranging for instructions from capitals. Missions should do everything possible to assist USDEL if they receive such a request. Until such a call is received, however, Missions should take no action on this issue; USDEL will be interacting directly with host-country expert delegations in Geneva, and premature contacts/demarches with host country government officials in capitals, even to preview the background of the situation, could be highly counter-productive. Point of Contact for USDEL is OES/EGC, XXXXXXXXXXXX.
¶4. (C) Background. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (http://www.ipcc.ch) is a highly influential body established by the World Meteological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to assess scientific issues related to climate change. This year, the U.S. has nominated Stanford Professor Christopher Field to the developed-country chair of IPCC Working Group Two, which assesses the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change and the options for adaptation. His nomination is unopposed. Iran, however, has nominated Dr. Mostafa Jafari to be the developing-country co-chair of the same working group. Jafari is a highly-qualified scientist with research ties to the UK and Japan, but he is also a senior Iranian government employee who has represented Iran in international negotiations. Co-chair appointments are for a minimum of four years, and require close collaboration and often travel to or extended residencies in each others, countries. Having U.S. and Iranian co-chairs would be problematic and potentially at odds with overall U.S. policy towards Iran, and would significantly complicate the U.S. commitment to funding the Working Group Two secretariat. U.S. withdrawal of its nominee, however, would effectively give Iran a veto over future U.S. nominees in UN bodies. Moreover, having a U.S. co-chair at the IPCC significantly bolsters U.S. interests on climate change, a key foreign policy issue.
¶5. (C) Background continued. Prior to arrival in Geneva, USDEL contacted IPCC Chairman Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (please protect), who agreed to work on this issue to avoid the potential for disruption to one the organization,s three core working groups XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Next, USDEL contacted the Austrian delegate serving as EU representative on the nominating committee that manages the election process, who showed an understanding of U.S. equities. USDEL contacted the Malian and Argentinean delegations, who have nominated highly-qualified co-chair candidates (see below), and the German delegation, who have been interested in advancing the Malian for co-chair of Working Group Three, for which Germany has nominated an unopposed candidate as developed-country co-chair. The Malians subsequently told USDEL that their candidate, Dr. Yauba Sokona, prefers Working Group Two to Working Group Three. Also prior to arrival in Geneva, USDEL contacted the UK and Netherlands delegations, both of which we have worked closely with in the past. Based on experience at prior IPCC plenaries, events related to the Working Group elections will likely unfold unpredictably and rapidly, necessitating a rapid and flexible USG response.
Education: -- Post doctorate research in Plant Ecophysiology Methodology in 1997 (Japan). -- Ph.D. in Plant Science (Ecology) in 1990 (UK). -- Short course in Agricultural Economy in 1983 (Tehran). -- B.Sc. in Forest and Range graduated in 1978 (Iran). -- Diploma in 1974 (Tehran).
Major Publications: Publication of 63 articles including five books and two university textbooks, including: -- Jafari, M. (1997a), The Present Status of Forestry Research in I.R. Iran, in Four Articles on Forests, Technical Publication No. 176-1997, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, pp 121. -- Jafari, M. (1997b), Present Status of Afforestation Research in I.R. Iran, in Four Articles on Forests, Technical Publication No. 176-1997, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, pp 121. -- Jafari, M. (2006), An Overview On Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) with An Introduction to Monitoring and Evaluation, ISBN: 964-6931-80-4, Pouneh Publisher, Tehran, Iran, pp 170. -- Jafari M. (2007a), Review on needfulness for plant ecophysiological study and investigation on climate change,s effects on forest, rangeland and desert ecosystems, presented in Workshop: Climate Change in South-Eastern European Countries: Causes, Impacts, Solutions, 26- 27 March 2007, Orangerie, Burggarten, Graz, Austria. -- Jafari M. (2007b), Climate Change and IPCC Assessments (Abstract of Keynote Lecture of the Symposium), in The Final Report of ICCAP, The Research Project on the Impact of Climate Changes on Agricultural Production System in Arid Areas, March 2007, ICCAP Publication 10-Japan, ISBN 4902325-09-8, pp 315-317. -- Cruz, R.V., M. Jafari, et al, 2007: Asia. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 469-506. -- Falkenmark M., C. M. Finlayson and L. J. Gordon (Coordinating lead authors), 2007, Agriculture, water, and ecosystems: avoiding the costs of going too far” Chapter 6, in book entitled “Water for Food, Water for Life” published by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), UK. (M. Jafari, Reviewer of chapter six).
Language knowledge: Persian, English (fluent); Italian, Arabic, French.
Dr. Youba Sokona has been Executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) since June 2004. OSS is an independent international organization based in Tunisia, comprised of 22 African and European countries, regional and international organizations, and representatives of civil society organizations. The Executive Secretary directs program operations and implements the decisions taken by the Executive Board and General Assembly.
Professor, &Ecole Nationale d,Ingenieurs de Bamako8 (National Engineering School, Bamako, Mali).
Dr. Sokona has participated in many international events on climate change, desertification, and biodiversity. He is often invited by African governments and international organisations, such as the World Bank, UNDP, UNEP, UNCCD, etc., to be a member of steering committees, to conduct programme evaluations, to chair high-level sessions in international conferences, and to contribute scientific and policy papers.
He took part in the international negotiations and follow-up events to the Rio process and the three UN environmental conventions on Climate Change, Desertification, and Biodiversity.
Board Member, International Institute for Environment and Development (present); and Board Member, Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (present).
A PhD in Meteorological Science, Dr. Barros is a Chief Researcher at the Conicet and Climatology Professor at the University of Buenos Aires, School of Natural Sciences, where he heads the Masters program in Environmental Science. He has written more than one hundred papers on climatic problems, half of which have been published in international scientific magazines. He took part in drafting a chapter of the Third Report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climatic Change in 2001.
El Cambio Climtico en la Cuenca del Plata. 2006. Eds. V. Barros, R. Clarke and P. Silva Dias. CIMA. Buenos Aires.
Differences in the El Nio response over the Southern Hemisphere 2003. J. Climate.17, 1741-1753. Vera C., Silvestri, V. Barros and A. Carril.
La temperatura del Atlntico Sur y la diferencia de caudales del Rio Parana durante los eventos El Nio 1982-83 y 1997-98. 2004. Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia I. Camilloni y V. Barros.
An Observed Trend in Central South American Precipitation 2004. J. Climate. 17: 4357-4367 B. Liebmann, Vera, C. Carvalho, L., Camilloni, I., Barros, V., Hoerling, M y Allured, D. A.
How does Soil Moisture Influence the Early Stages of the South American Monsoon? 2008 J. Climate. 21. 185-213. E. Collini, E. Berbery, V. Barros and, M. Pyle.
Precipitation trends in southeastern South America: relationship with ENSO phases and the low-level circulation. 2008. Theoretical and Appl. Climatology. In press. V. Barros, M. Doyle and I. Camilloni.
Climate change in the environmental agenda for Argentina V. Barros, H. Carlino, and Daniel Perczyk. Second AIACC Regional Workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean. Buenos Aires, 24-27 Agosto 2004.
Extreme Precipitations in Argentina, Trends and Climate Change. M. Re, R. Saurral and V. Barros. Fourth International Workshop on Development and Management of Dams in the Plata Basin; Salto Grande, November 2005.
Seasonal dependence of surface-atmosphere interactions for subtropical South America. Collini, E. A.; Berbery, E. H.; Barros, V. . 8th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography. Abril 2006, Foz de Iguazu. Proceedings pag. 999.
Sea-level pressure patterns in South America and the adjacent oceans in the IPCC AR4 models. Di Luca, A.; Camilloni, I.; Barros, V. 8th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography. Abril 2006, Foz de Iguazu. Proceedings pag. 235.
Assessing long-term discharges of the Plata River Saurral, R.; Mezher, R.; Barros, V. 8th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography. Abril 2006, Foz de Iguazu. Proceedings pag. 821.
Extreme precipitations in Argentina Re, M.; Saurral, R.; Barros, V. 8th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography. Abril 2006, Foz de Iguazu. Proceedings pag. 1575.
- National Report to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and Environment, Rio de Janeiro, 1992. 579 pp. 1991 (in Spanish). - Background Report for the First National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1997 (in Spanish).
- Greenhouse gasses emissions inventory and Climate Change Studies on Vulnerability and Mitigation. In Argentina, SECYT 1998, 5 volumes (in Spanish). - Background report for the Revision of the First National Communication to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Secretary of Sustainable Development and Environment, 1999, 104 pp (in Spanish). - Inventory of Greenhouse gasses of the Argentine Republic, year 1997. Secretary of Sustainable Development and Environment, 1999, 150 pp (in Spanish).
Since 1969, more than 100 conferences to scientific, diplomatic and business communities and for the public. In 1991 and 1992, numerous conferences about the Argentine Report to the Conference of United Nations on Environment and Sustainable Development of 1992.
Similarly in 1997 and 1998 on climate change and the First Argentine Communication to the Framework Convention on Climate Change and on its revision in 1999.
Amjad Abdulla is the Director General at the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Water of Maldives and has been working in the Ministry since 1990 in various positions. He is the national focal point for the National Adaptation Programme of Action for Climate Change. He is the lead negotiator from the Maldives to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Mr. Abdulla was a member of National Commission for the Protection of the Environment (NCPE) from 2003 to 2006 and is also a member of a number of task forces and committees appointed by the President to develop the strategic plans and policies on environment and development. He has worked nationally and internationally as a freelance consultant on various environmental projects. He has also coordinated and managed several donor assisted projects at the Ministry.
Mr. Abdulla is also author and contributing author to several reports of high national significance: Maldives National Adaptation Programme of Action on Climate Change; First National Communication of Maldives to UNFCCC; Third Environment Action Plan; National Sustainable Development Strategy. He has also written and published several reports and research papers relating to environmental planning and the economic vulnerability of Small Island States. He is also has experience in planning and designing of several coastal developments, including, harbours, jetties, breakwater and other shore protection measures for several islands in the Maldives.
Mr. Abdulla has the distinction of having represented the Maldives at a number of international conferences including the negotiation to review the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the Mauritius International meeting in 2005. He has also represented Maldives at the UNFCCC negotiations. Mr. Abdulla was the Vice-Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) under UNFCCC from December 2004 to December 2006 and chaired the 22nd and 23rd Session of the SBSTA. He is also a member of the Enforcement Branch of the Kyoto compliance committee and an alternate member of the Adaptation Fund Board under UNFCC. He is also the current chair of the LDC group for climate negotiations under UNFCCC.
Mr. Abdulla possesses an honours degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Brighton, UK and a MSc, in Environmental Science, Policy and Planning from the University of Bath, UK. His professional areas of interest include environmental economics, environmental planning, sustainable development and climate change.

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