The second week of Copenhagen began this morning (December 14) with a press conference with Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development. Both called now the time to 'get our act together' and deliver an agreement here at Copenhagen.

 
Video of highlights of the press conference to follow.

 
Clips from the transcript below.

 
TRANSCRIPT

 
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change:
…Tomorrow evening our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will be arriving;
another series of leaders arrive on Wednesday and Thursday. I think
that should focus the mind, frankly, of negotiators and ministers, and I
think we collectively need to get our act together and move on, and find
ways in which we can solve some of the difficult issues, because these
issues that I've mentioned can't all be left to leaders. It may be
the case that some final issues remain when leaders arrive. I think…
I've always said that leaders' role in this process is incredibly
important to get the final pieces of the jigsaw in place. But what we
cannot do is leave a whole slew of issues to leaders, so I think that
the very clear message for negotiators and ministers is 'we need to
get our act together and take action to resolve some of the outstanding
issues that we face.' Douglas.

 
Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development: Thank you, Ed. Firstly, can I say what a pleasure it is to share the platform with my colleague, Ed Miliband. My presence here as the United Kingdom's International Development Secretary reflects the British Government’s understanding that the challenge of tackling dangerous climate change and tackling extreme global poverty are now indivisible. For the developing world, climate change is not a future threat, but is a contemporary crisis, and that is why we have been so keen consistently in the months preceding Copenhagen not simply to identify problems but to offer solutions. It was Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on a platform with Ed back in June, that led the way in seeking to shift these negotiations from words to numbers with a proposal for long-term financing of $100 billion per annum by 2020; it's why, at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, our Prime Minister proposed funding of $10 billion a year for 2010, 2011, 2012, the UK's
contribution to this fund being increased at the most recent European
Council from £800 million to £1.5 billion; and, of course, that European
Council confirmed the European Union's offer for fast-start funding as
€7.2 billion. The Prime Minister, as we've heard, will be joining the
negotiations tomorrow evening, Tuesday. That is a testimony to the
seriousness with which the British Government regards both the need for
continued work and higher ambition in the days ahead, but also the
determination that where there is a will to find an agreement, there
should also be a way to find the agreement, and that will be the task of
ministers and negotiators in the hours and days ahead. Thank you.

 
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change:  I think that the presence of countries like Tuvalu who face immediate and
growing threats to their very existence is a salutary reminder of what
Douglas has said, which is the urgency of this crisis. Now, I think we
should go for the most ambition that we can get. The truth is that as a
result of the emissions already in the atmosphere, we’re likely to see
warming of 1.4 degrees. That's why we have taken the position,
because we think it is a deliverable position, which is that we can
limit warming to no more than two degrees. But I think that we should
hear the demands, the urgency that the small island states are demanding and saying look, we've got to get on with this as quickly as possible, so I want the most ambition we can get out of this agreement.

 
Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development: I would just echo the point that Ed made, that we want the maximum level of ambition and that has informed our thinking, both on the issue of emissions reductions and also the issue of climate finance. I have in recent weeks had the opportunity to hear from leaders of other nations directly being affected by climate change today and it adds a real sense of urgency and importance to what happens in the days ahead.

 
EM: Lawrence.

 
Lawrence McGinty, correspondent: Lawrence McGinty from ITV News. The head of the Chinese delegation is quoted in the Financial Times this morning saying that their refusal to accept verification is a matter of principle. How can you change that?

 
EM: This is part of the final days of these negotiations. I think the…
I think it's important to say about China that they have done a lot to
try and make these negotiations succeed, so they have put on the table a
carbon intensity target of 40-45% reduction. There are two outstanding
issues I think we… all countries face, frankly, in this, which is
whether we are willing to stand behind our commitments and say that
we're going to do what we promise, and secondly the precise system
of monitoring, reporting and verification to ensure that people actually
follow through on what they've promised. We think that is a very
important part of these discussions. I believe we can make progress on
it; we have made progress on monitoring, reporting and verification for
actions which are financially supported; we need to make further
progress in the days ahead.

 
EH: You've just heard the Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband, in
response in that news conference together with the International
Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, live from Copenhagen.

Ends