Brown's bid to break Copenhagen deadlock
Updated on 15 December 2009
Prime Minister Gordon Brown heads to Copenhagen early in an attempt to get negotiations at the UN climate change summit back on track after talks were suspended yesterday.
Mr Brown will arrive at the summit several days before most world leaders, but the day after talks were suspended for several hours when poorer countries, led by African nations, staged a walkout.
These countries fear that the Copenhagen talks will kill off the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the only legally-binding agreement for rich countries to cut their emissions, and replace it with a non-binding deal.
Yesterday, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband told Channel 4 News: "I think we're in a very, very serious and finely balanced situation, and we could fail.
"What we can't have is an empty agreement. We haven't come this far, made the progress, to end up simply with a load of waffle at the end. We are determined to ensure that doesn't happen."
The Prince of Wales is also heading to the conference, where he will give a key-note speech to delegates, highlighting how mankind has the power to bring the planet to the brink - but also has the power to bring the world back on balance.
Ahead of the prime minister's trip, aides said Mr Brown plans to spend much of Wednesday in private meetings with developing countries who are disproportionately affected by climate change but also need the most financial help.
Before setting off, Mr Brown will hold talks in Downing Street with Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister and the head of the African Union's delegation to the United Nations gathering.
