The Pentagon demanded total immunity from emissions reporting to protect strategic secrets, but the White House settled for limited exemptions and a set of managed questions.
By Harlan Pryce ·
For over 25 years, the State Department kept secret how it viewed China's internal instability and climate disasters as tactical variables in a high-stakes diplomatic stalemate.
By June Hargrove ·
Kept under 'close hold' status, a secret 1999 strategy attempted to leverage China's economic fears to force a global climate deal before the turn of the millennium.
By Eleanor Voss ·
A 1998 backgrounder kept secret for decades shows how the White House engineered treaty exemptions to hide the energy footprint of the Defense Department
By Harlan Pryce ·
A weekly briefing to President Clinton tracked a public clash between DOD officials over the Kyoto Protocol while the administration's policy hit a wall in Congress
By Marcus Boone ·
For decades, the global public believed military emissions were a footnote; a 1998 State Department record shows the security state carved out a hidden sanctuary for its carbon footprint.
By Constance Bell ·
A 1998 speech by a high-ranking diplomat masks military maneuvering behind the promise of environmental cooperation, linking climate treaties to strategic objectives met in Japan.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Environmental groups were told the U.S. supported climate goals while diplomats worked to ensure the Pentagon's carbon footprint remained invisible and exempt from international law.
By Constance Bell ·
Developing nations were offered technical aid as a lure to join a post-Kyoto regime, while Washington fought a quiet war over who would own the climate portfolio.
By Theo Marchetti ·
For years, the gap between the EPA's scientific data and the White House's public narrative remained hidden; a 1999 message shows a failed push to massage U.S. emissions totals before COP-5.
By Theo Marchetti ·
Bill Clinton and Al Gore were urged to use personal diplomatic outreach to break a deadlock over emissions markets before a November summit in Buenos Aires
By Theo Marchetti ·
Global emissions totals were skewed for decades by a unique national security exemption that allowed the US military to move its carbon footprint off the national ledger.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Kept internal for years, a February 1998 memorandum outlines a scheme to strip agency autonomy and hand climate control to a small circle of political operatives.
By Constance Bell ·
The Global South was treated as a hurdle to be cleared while a White House strategy shifted toward voluntary targets, a move kept from the public for years.
By Marcus Boone ·
To save the Kyoto Protocol from a hostile Senate, energy officials sought loopholes in carbon accounting and voluntary promises from China and India—a strategy detailed in a memo kept from public view for years.
By Theo Marchetti ·
While the world faced a heating planet, a 1999 memo shows the White House leveraging tax bills to bypass political deadlock and secure funding for a climate agenda that faced intense internal opposition.
By June Hargrove ·