George Monbiot has a good analysis of the Copenhagen talks on climate change in 21 December’s Guardian which is worth reading in full.
Monbiot concludes: ‘The immediate reason for the failure of the talks can be summarised in two words: Barack Obama… [who] went behind the backs of the UN and most of its member states and assembled a coalition of the willing to strike a deal that outraged the rest of the world. This was then presented to poorer nations without negotiation: they either signed it or they lost the adaptation funds required to help them survive the first few decades of climate breakdown…
‘Obama also put Beijing in an impossible position. He demanded concessions while offering nothing… My guess is that this was a calculated manoeuvre guaranteed to produce intransigence, whereupon China could be blamed for the outcome the US wanted.’