Talks stalled overnight on procedure, after some developing nations and China rejected a proposal by the Danish hosts to break talks into smaller groups to speed up progress. They insisted that everyone should see Denmark's proposal.
"I fear a triumph of form over substance," said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
China told participants it saw no possibility of achieving a detailed accord to tackle global warming, an official from another nation involved in the talks said. The official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters the Chinese had instead suggested issuing "a short political declaration of some sort."
India's environment minister accused rich countries of planning a "propaganda campaign" to blame developing nations for any breakdown in negotiations. Developing economies are expected to add almost all future growth in carbon emissions.
"We are in the end game," said Jairam Ramesh. "It's only a matter of time before the blame game starts. Already some developed countries are accusing the G77 (developing nation group), Africa. This is completely, incomprehensively wrong."
European environment ministers said talks were in danger.
"We've got a serious situation," German environment minister Norbert Roettgen told Reuters.
I guess I should not say it is a shame. In reality it's a sham. Fundamentally, nothing has changed from 2005 when I wrote:
If the rest of the world wants to commit economic suicide they are welcome to it. What you will see is that the countries who refuse to go along with Kyoto, like the U.S., China and India, will still have thriving economies while the Kyoto countries make their headlong rush for the 19th century.
Of course that won't happen. Countries will start pealing off of Kyoto one by one as the economic realities pile up one by one.
Unfortunately for most of the world, the "leaders" gathered in Copenhagen are not interested in realities of any sort, economic, scientific or political. It is a serious question as to how we human beings have managed to have so many sophomoric leaders all at the same time.
Where have all the adults gone?
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