Even UN thinks there's little chance of global agreement in December

This may be a tactic on the part of Yvo de Boer to scare governments into more action to "tackle climate change" in advance of Copenhagen, or it might be really what he thinks (unlikely). Either way, it shows how idiotic Rudd's desperate push for the ETS to be legislated this year really is…

"If we continue at this rate we are not going to make it," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said at the end of a five-day negotiating session in Bonn.

"Momentum for a strong result is building at the highest political level," he said, referring to individual pledges by rich nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

"But that action is not ambitious enough, and it is only half of the solution. The negotiations need to move forward much faster," he said in a webcast press conference.

Some 2,400 delegates from about 180 nations, riven by major differences, made scant headway toward hammering out a draft treaty, negotiators said.

On Friday, a document of 200 pages -- little more than a "laundry list" of national positions, according to one negotiator -- still contained "about 2,500 brackets in the text, each indicating an area of disagreement," de Boer said.

"This shows how much ground there is still to be covered."

Sharp divisions remain over how deeply wealthy economies should slash their carbon emissions by 2020, and whether commitments by developing nations should be binding.

Read it here.