WHAT'LL THE RIGHT SAY WHEN THE UR GETS BLAME/CREDIT FOR KILLING THE CLIMATE ACCORD?:

World leaders 'could boycott failing Copenhagen talks' (Philippe Naughton, 12/15/09, Times of London)

The fundamental stand-off at the conference is between major emerging economies such as China and India, whose emissions are expected to soar over the coming decades, and the United States, which never ratified the Kyoto Protocol and is insisting that any deal must involve sacrifices by newly industrialised economies.

A new draft text released today showed the scale of the deadlock: it lacked any figures on emissions targets nor did it propose a firm date for the "global peaking" of emissions. Britain argues that emissions must start falling by 2020 if a global temperature rise of above 2C is to be averted.

Delegates say that behind-closed-doors negotiations have been marred by bitter exchanges between the Americans and Chinese, with Beijing accusing Washington of "playing tricks". African and many Asian delegates have complained that they have been virtually excluded from the negotiations as China and India throw their weight around inside the developing country bloc.

One Western diplomat said that Ms Hedegaard, the former Danish climate minister, was moving too fast for a painstaking, consensus-forging process.