from the BBC

Mr Miliband said the vast majority of countries wanted a legally-binding treaty to protect the planet and he said that it appeared four or five countries were keen to "shelve the accord".

Developing countries

He wrote of a legally-binding treaty: "Some leading developing countries currently refuse to countenance this.

"That is why we did not secure an agreement that the political accord struck in Copenhagen should lead to a legally binding outcome.

"We did not get an agreement on 50% reductions in global emissions by 2050 or on 80% reductions by developed countries.

"Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of developed and the vast majority of developing countries."

The accord was reached between the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, but is not legally binding.

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From the Guardian

Gordon Brown today said a new global treaty on climate change had been "held to ransom" by some countries opposed to a deal in Copenhagen, and called for reform of the way such negotiations take place, including an international body to handle environmental stewardship.

The prime minister said the weak agreement reached in Copenhagen at the weekend after all-night deliberations was a "first step towards a new alliance to overcome the enormous challenges of climate change". He called on all countries to show greater ambition as part of a campaign over the coming months to turn the agreement into a legally binding treaty.

"The talks in Copenhagen were not easy and as they reached conclusion I did fear the process would collapse and we would have no deal at all," he said. "We must learn lessons from Copenhagen and the tough negotiations that took place. Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down these talks. Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries."

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From Monbiot...

The last time global negotiations collapsed like this was in Doha, in 2001. After the trade talks fell apart, the World Trade Organisation assured delegates that there was nothing to fear: they would move to Mexico, where a deal would be done. The negotiations ran into the sand of the Mexican resort of Cancún, never to re-emerge. After eight years of dithering, nothing has been agreed.

When the climate talks in Copenhagen ended in failure last week, Yvo de Boer, the man in charge of the process, urged us not to worry: everything will be sorted out "in Mexico one year from now". Is Mexico the diplomatic equivalent of the Pacific garbage patch: the place where failed negotiations go to die?

De Boer might pretend that this is just a temporary hitch, but he knows what happens when talks lose momentum. A year ago I asked him what he feared most. This is what he said. "The worst-case scenario for me is that climate becomes a second WTO … Copenhagen, for me, is a very clear deadline that I think we need to meet, and I am afraid that if we don't then the process will begin to slip, and like in the trade negotiations, one deadline after the other will not be met, and we sort of become the little orchestra on the Titanic.

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from Gus

THE CYCLE WE'VE ENTERED IS PROBABLY THE 120 MILLION YEAR CYCLE... THEN THERE WAS MORE CO2 IN THE ATMOSPHERE. THE SEA LEVEL WAS AT LEAST 200 METRES ABOVE PRESENT SEA LEVEL.

HUMANS HAVE OPENED THE (PANDORA) CARBON BOX, CARBON THAT HAD BEEN MORE OR LESS SEQUESTERED UNDERGROUND SINCE THAT TIME PLUS THE  CARBON SEQUESTERED BEFORE THAT. THE QUESTION IS HOW MUCH CAN WE BURN BEFORE WE START DESTROYING SOME OF THE PLACE. NOTE: GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT "THE END OF THE WORLD". BUT A CHANGE OF DYNAMICS OF THE ATMOSPHERE WITH CONSEQUENCES...

ONE NEEDS TO ALSO NOTE THAT CYCLES ARE NOT EASY SOFT PROGRESSIVE UP AND DOWN CURVES, BUT CHANGES SUCH AS CLIMATE CHANGE CAN (AND HAS) HAPPEN "IN A JIFFY". THEN IT CAN "STABILISE" OR CHANGE SLOWLY ONLY WITH FLUCTUATIONS. THE COMPLEXITIES OF OBSERVATION ARE MULTIPLE. THE RESULTS ARE COMPLEX. THE SIMPLE FACT IS THAT CO2 IS A GREENHOUSE GAS. ADDING GREENHOUSE GASES TO THE GREENHOUSE IS LIKELY TO WARM THE PLACE UP.

China has dismissed allegations made by a British minister that it was responsible for the near collapse of climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband had singled out China for vetoing an agreement on limiting emissions.

Beijing said his comments were part of a political scheme to "provoke discord among developing countries".

The Copenhagen summit ended without the 192 countries present reaching a firm agreement on climate change.

The delegates simply committed to "taking note" of a deal recognising the need to limit temperature rises to 2C.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu did not mention Mr Miliband by name, but in comments reported by the Xinhua state news agency, she said statements from "certain British politicians" were "plainly a political scheme".

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from the SMH

News arriving from the Danish capital paints a picture of chaos. After planning an event in which about 40,000 people were to participate, the hosts have no way of keeping their promise. Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was the first of the presidents from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas to arrive there, expressed certain profound truths emanating from the millenary culture of his people.

According to the news agencies, he affirmed that he had received a mandate from the Bolivian people to oppose any agreement if the final declaration fails to meet expectations. He explained that climate change is not the cause but the effect, that we have an obligation to defend the rights of Mother Earth against the model of capitalist development, the culture of life against the culture of death. He spoke of the climate debt that the rich countries must pay to the poor countries, and the return of atmospheric space seized from the latter.

Morales described as 'ridiculous" the figure of $10 billion offered per year up until 2012 when, in reality, hundreds of billions of dollars are needed every year. He also accused the US of spending trillions of dollars on exporting terrorism to Iraq and Afghanistan and establishing military bases in Latin America.

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