Copenhagen summit will be a way station: Obama

But comments by Obama and fellow leaders at a hastily arranged breakfast meeting here on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit served to put the final nail in any remaining expectations for the December summit.

“There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full internationally,legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen which starts in 22 days,” said Michael Froman,Obama’s deputy national security adviser for international economic matters.

The prime minister of Denmark,Lars Loekke Rasmussen,the UN-sponsored climate conference’s chairman,flew overnight to Singapore to present a proposal to the leaders to instead make the Copenhagen goal a matter of crafting a “politically binding” agreement,in hopes of rescuing some future for the struggling process.

A fully binding legal agreement would be left to a second meeting next year in Mexico City,Froman said.

Obama backed the approach,cautioning the group not to let the “perfect be the enemy of the good,” Froman said.

Addressing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum later,Obama talked of the need to limit greenhouse-gas emissions “in Copenhagen and beyond.”

Froman said the Danish proposal would call for Copenhagen to produce “operational impact,” but he did not explain how that would work or to what it would apply.

Despite the cooperative-sounding words,the two-year process of crafting a landmark treaty has been stymied by deep distrust between rich,developed nations and poorer developing nations such as India,Brazil and China.

The developed nations hold that all countries must agree to legally binding targets to reduce heat-trapping gases. Developing countries say they can make reductions a goal but not a requirement,and they want more money from wealthy nations to help them make the transition.

A major bill dealing with energy and climate in the US,a domestic priority of Obama’s,is bogged down in the US Senate with scant hope it would be completed by next month,giving the American president little to show in Copenhagen.

Between that and the developments in Singapore,there may be little reason for Obama to travel there. White House aides had been saying privately that the outcome of talks during Obama’s weeklong Asia trip,including a three-day visit to China that starts this night,would help determine whether Obama might go to Copenhagen.