Watermelons Regroup

The claim is "no environmental deal at Copenhagen" next month, but that's not how this story from the UK Telegraph reads:

Copenhagen climate change agreement is impossible
World leaders have finally accepted that it will be impossible to come to a deal on climate change this year and have moved their attention to setting new deadlines for a global agreement.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Published: 1:37PM GMT 15 Nov 2009

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December has been billed as the world’s last chance to stop global warming.

But negotiations soon broke down because the US refused to sign up to targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The deadlock has forced world leaders at a summit in Singapore to step in and admit that any deal this year will be little more than a “political agreement”.

However they insisted that a legally-binding treaty will be thrashed out by the end of 2010 and even suggested a timetable and deadline to ensure negotiations stay on track.

The new “two-step” plan, put forward by the Danes, increases pressure on President Obama to attend the talks in Copenhagen and reassure the world that the US is serious about tackling climate change.

It also gives the world a chance to rescue the Copenhagen summit from certain failure by giving lawyers more time to work on a hugely complex international deal.

The Danes are already drawing up a “politically binding” agreement and environment ministers will meet in Copenhagen this week to discuss the details.

But environmental groups are concerned the “rescue package” is a delaying tactic by the rich nations to wriggle out of cutting carbon.

The new plan was put forward by Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, over breakfast at an Asia-Pacific summit.

He suggested world leaders agree a “political accord” to keep temperature rise below 2C. However it will not be until further UN meetings in Bonn in June and Mexico in December that the details of how this will be achieved will be decided.

"Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not possible," he said.

"The Copenhagen Agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion."

During the latest round of negotiations in Barcelona, developing nations walked out over the America’s refusal to commit to cuts in carbon emissions.

However the new plan gives President Obama time to push through the necessary legislation that will allow America to sign up to emission targets.

It also gives the world time to agree how much money should be given to help poor countries adapt to climate change and also cut emissions.

Ed Miliband, the UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said it was essential that President Obama attends the talks to ensure any political agreement is a success.

"I think as many leaders as possible - including President Obama - do need to come there because that will make a difference in the end to the kind of deal we want,” he said.

However environmental groups fear the deal could still be a failure because America cannot be trusted to cut emissions and developing countries may walk out unless they get enough money to tackle climate change.

Diane McFadzien of WWF said only a legally-binding treaty will force nations to take the necessary action to stop global warming.

“Legally binding is the only thing that will do if we want to see real action to save the planet,” she said.