No deal at Copenhagen

The ticking clock display at Barcelon is appropriate, as time has run out. The news from the floor here at Barcelona, and also appearing in media outlets, is that we will get no legal deal at Copenhagen. Yves Boer had said at the start of the week that it was possible, but four days on and it is apparently not so. This view is being echoed by UK's David Miliband, and others. The only option now is a political deal of some sort, we are told.

Conveniently, there have been negotiations over a political deal for some time, outside of the UN. Was it always going to be like this? Did we just have to wait long enough for the politicians to say that time had run out, so they could come and save the failed UN deal with a political fudge?

At the end of the day the negotiators here negotiate according to a political mandate. If a legally binding deal had been wanted by all the key countries then more progress would have been made.