Hopes that negotiators will reach a final treaty to reduce emissions at Copenhagen are fading fast. Rajendra Pachauri, the Nobel prize-winning chairman of the International Panel on Climate Change, added his voice to the growing chorus of doubters today, saying that a failure to reach an agreement "seems very likely at this point of time". Dr Pachauri put the blame squarely on the United States, noting the failure of the US Congress to pass a law regulating greenhouse gases in time for the start of the negotiations on December 7. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed a measure to reduce emissions to 17 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, but the Senate has yet to bring its version of the bill to the floor for a vote. "Europe is pretty much on board, Japan has come up with very ambitious targets, even in the developing countries, the emerging markets, there is at least some indication that their own national action plans will be taken," Dr Pachauri told The National today in a phone interview. "What's really missing is the US and Canada, and in the absence of at least the US, I'm not too sure you can get any kind of binding global agreement." Dr Pachauri's comments follow similar remarks by Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Mr de Boer told the AP yesterday that he hoped the Copenhagen talks would yield "a series of clear decisions" to specify emissions targets. A formal treaty could be adapted from those targets within six months, he said.