Miliband lowers climate treaty hopes
Updated on 06 November 2009
Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband acknowledges that hopes are fading for a legally-binding climate change treaty to be agreed at the Copenhagen summit next month.
Mr Miliband said: "UN negotiations are moving too slowly and not going well." There was a "history of mistrust" between developed and developing nations and people were "stuck in entrenched positions".
Earlier Mr Miliband urged wealthy nations to "put their money where their mouth is" and promise finance for a global climate change deal.
He told MPs he expected negotiations at Copenhagen to go "right down to the wire", with funding for developing countries set to be a potential stumbling block. Aviation and maritime industries would also be expected to help fund a deal.
Channel 4 News science correspondent Julian Rush writes about the changing climate of the Copenhagen summit:
"So it's official. There will be no legally binding treaty in Copenhagen.
"Now, there's a lot of salvage work going on. The aim is a political agreement, one that is "politically binding" - though that's something of a slippery concept.
"Negotiations that may take a further six months, though I've heard one insider say it could take up to a year.
"The more optimistic government delegates – Britain among them - say they're still pushing for a political agreement with real numbers in it – numbers for emissions cuts by developed countries, numbers for emissions restraint by developing countries, and numbers for the money the rich will pay to the poor to help them deal with the impacts of climate change.
"But the frustration of the poor is growing – African nations walked out at the beginning of the week demanding the rich countries start talking turkey. That livened things up. And it has put the rich countries under the spotlight and forced them to start explaining exactly how their much-vaunted offers of targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions will actually work.
"The problem is a politically binding agreement can be watered down; it can be evaded and sidestepped.
"The less meat there is in, the greater wriggle room there is to water it down. And astute negotiators know that, which may explain the British ambition for real numbers in the agreement."
