The January 31 deadline for submission of mitigation targets, which will intends to complete the Appendices of the Copenhagen Accord (PDF), is approaching.

As well as being asked to submit targets, Parties have also been asked by the UN to come forward and 'associate' with the Accord. In an interview with www.actoncopenhagen.gov.uk, the Australian Special Envoy on Climate Change, Howard Bamsey, has voiced Australia’s backing of the Copenhagen Accord.

The Accord is a 'very important step forward that we strongly support. We support it in the context that most other countries also support the Accord. We’re backing the full implementation of the Accord as soon as it can be done.’' Mr Bamsey said.

According to media reports, at least nine countries have written to the UN to formally associate, whilst many others are expected to do so. The BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) are meeting within the week in New Delhi to discuss positioning.

The UK wholeheartedly associates itself with the Accord which, despite disappointment with eventual outcome, represents a real step change in global action to combat dangerous climate change.

Progress through 2010

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary UNFCCC, acknowledged in a recent press conference that the eventual outcome of Copenhagen was disappointing, but listed the positive elements – the elevation of climate to the highest political level; and political consensuses on long term climate action – as the right 'ingredients for a future deal'.

Echoing the UK’s response to the disappointment of the outcome, Mr de Boer also added 'It means that the window of opportunity we have to come to grips with the issue is closing faster than before.'

With many stakeholders and media commentating on the 'failure' of Copenhagen, many are questioning the routemap from here: how will the world tackle dangerous climate change in the diminishing window of opportunity? Many eyes are focused on Mexico, the host country of COP16, as the possible conclusion for what began in Copenhagen.

Mr de Boer commented that he was meeting Mexico next month, and would be consulting countries on 2010 milestones in the coming weeks. He stressed that negotiations would continue through the existing twin-tracks of Kyoto Protocol (KP) and Long Term Cooperative Action (LCA) and that the Accord would be used as instrument to advance formal process.