OH, BRING US A FIGLESS PUUDDING?:

Obama's Copenhagen Speech: The Collapse of a Deal?> (David Corn, 12/18/09, Politics Daily)

No deal. Not even a fig leaf.

That seemed to be the implication of President Obama's much-anticipated speech at the Copenhagen climate summit. [...]

His eight minutes of remarks signaled a global train wreck. Not hiding his anger and frustration, he said, "I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt." He maintained that his administration has started to mount an "ambitious" plan to cut emissions. And he contended that it is "in our mutual interest to achieve a global accord in which we agree to steps, and to hold each other accountable for certain commitments." According to his prepared text, Obama was next supposed to say, "I believe that the pieces of that accord are now clear." (Emphasis added.) Instead, he asserted, "I believe that the pieces of that accord should now be clear." That is, there was no consensus among the major global leaders regarding what a deal would look like -- not even one that would paper-over the deep differences that have plagued the Copenhagen summit from the start: what targets to set; how to include both developed and developing countries within the same framework; what financing would be available to help poorer nations contend with climate change.