No deal in Denmark

Followers of this blog will have known I have long predicted no deal in Copenhagen. This was hardly a left field prediction - it was simply never going to happen.

The gulf between developed and developing countries is simply too large and Obama already has enough on his plate. Even Obama running out of time was inevitable many months ago - so many wasted column inches.

A pointless few days is ahead of us.

Copenhagen climate talks: No deal, we're out of time, Obama warns [Guardian]

Obama acknowledged today that time had run out to secure a legally binding climate deal at the Copenhagen summit in December and threw his support behind plans to delay a formal pact until next year at the earliest.

During a hastily convened meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from next month's meeting by aiming to make it a first-stage series of commitments rather than an all-encompassing protocol.

Postponing many contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer until the second-stage, leaders will instead try to reach a political agreement in Copenhagen that sends a strong message of intent.

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