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 dealines for a global agreement.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December has been billed as the world’s last chance to stop global warming.

But negotiations soon broke down because the US refused to sign up to targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The deadlock has forced world leaders at a summit in Singapore to step in and admit that any deal this year will be little more than a “political agreement”.

However they insisted that a legally-binding treaty will be thrashed out by the end of 2010 and even suggested a timetable and deadline to ensure negotiations stay on track.

In a letter to the New York Times, atmospheric scientist Dr Martin Hertzberg accuses that newspaper of "continuously regurgitating fear-mongering, anecdotal claptrap of global warming propagandists".

An article reprinted from the UK Telegraph last week in the Herald's Green Pages, "Global warming: The ten most affected areas" might be a candidate for similar criticism.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/6486612/Global-warming-ten-most-affected-areas.html 

I am grateful to the Herald for this opportunity to set the record straight.