As one predicted, it now increasingly looks like there will be no green fairy tales at the forthcoming December Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen. No swan will emerge from the Ugly Duckling of 20,000 participants flying round the globe, all descending on the poor Little Mermaid, who, I am sure, has had more than enough of human souls already.

And who are the press fingering? Jolly old President Obama and China, of course. Here are the latest reports [at 20.55 GMT: when you click through, the reports may have been updated]:

The Times: “President Obama and other world leaders at a trade summit in Singapore have accepted that next month's Copenhagen summit is now unlikely to produce a legally binding deal on emissions, with agreement on climate change set to be deferred until the middle of 2010.

A meeting of 19 leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum, which included Mr Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, agreed that the forthcoming United Nations summit in Copenhagen should merely aim to make progress on cutting emissions.

Instead they backed a face-saving proposal from Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who jetted in at short notice after climate change was belatedly inserted into the agenda for Singapore, aimed at forging a political statement of intent at the December meeting.”

The Guardian: “Barack Obama acknowledged today that time has run out to secure a binding climate deal at Copenhagen and began moving towards a two-stage process that would delay a legal pact until next year at the earliest.

During a hastily convened breakfast meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from the moribund negotiations by aiming for a broad political agreement and postponing contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer.

While this falls short of hopes that Copenhagen would lock in place a new action plan for the world, it recognises the lack of progress in recent preparatory talks and the hold-ups of climate legislation in the US Senate. ‘There was a realistic assessment … by the leaders that it was unrealistic to expect a full internationally legally binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days,’ said Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser for economic affairs.”

The Daily Telegraph: “World leaders have finally accepted that it will be impossible to come to a deal on climate change this year and have moved their attention to setting new deadlines for a global agreement.”

[May I just point out that they have actually been negotiating for years already.]

Target Dropped

In addition, BBC Asia-Pacific News Online reports that Apec leaders have dropped their climate target:

“World leaders meeting in Singapore have said it will not be possible to reach a climate change deal ahead of next month's UN conference in Denmark. After a two-day Asia-Pacific summit, they vowed to work towards an ‘ambitious outcome’ in Copenhagen.

But the group dropped a target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which was outlined in an earlier draft.”

It is being alleged by some that China had a powerful hand in watering down the proposed Apec communique. Now there would be a surprise, I don’t think.

I fear this is all so predictable. The gap between the political rhetoric and political reality yawns wider by the day. For me, however, it is a relief, as the world is now less likely to be saddled with fairy-tale emission targets beyond the imagination of even Hans Christian Andersen.

And, I increasingly ponder if, somewhat paradoxically, Copenhagen might mark the beginning of the end of the ‘global warming’ political grand narrative? I wonder what the Snow Queen thinks? “Permafrost all round?”