As the final 5 days of negotiations continue in Barcelona this week, the focus of commentators is intensifying towards Copenhagen and the nature of the deal that will be agreed there.

 

The UK Government's ambition remains to work for a legally binding treaty which puts the world on a trajectory to a maximum global average temperature increase of two degrees and provides a fair deal for developing countries. In the remaining weeks until Copenhagen, the UK are going all out to get an ambitious, fair and effective deal.

 

The UN has come forward to say that the slow pace of negotiations mean that a treaty won't be finalised at Copenhagen: Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN's most senior climate official, has said: 'It is physically impossible, under any scenario, to complete every detail of a treaty in Copenhagen.'

 

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General, has also attracted media attention by indicating he thought it was unlikely a legally-binding treaty would emerge from Copenhagen. And Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister whose government hosts the  Copenhagen conference, said: 'We do not think it will be possible to decide all the finer details for a legally binding regime.'

 

UK ambition on a Copenhagen deal

 

The UK is determined to reach a comprehensive politically binding agreement at Copenhagen, under the UNFCCC, which covers all the major issues: including most importantly binding economy-wide emissions reductions from developed countries, significant action from developing countries to slow their emissions growth, and finance.

 

We want the Copenhagen agreement to lead to immediate action, without waiting years for final legal conclusion and ratification. At Copenhagen, we will need to agree a timetable for the finalisation of the legal treaty.

 

We want countries to commit, as the UK and EU have done, to reducing their emissions and to adopting - and financing - adaptation plans immediately.

 

The agreement should be ambitious, fair and effective. Anything less than this would represent an incomplete outcome.

After Copenhagen the agreement must then be translated into a legally binding international treaty that includes all countries. At Copenhagen we must instruct our legal experts to expedite this work and complete it as soon as possible.

 

As far as the UK, ambitions for Copenhagen are as strong as ever, as set out in the UK's Road to Copenhagen document.

 

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, recently said 'I want there to be an agreement at Copenhagen. I think it is based on us agreeing first of all the political understanding about how the treaty will be developed' (Parliamentary Questions, 28 October 2009).

 

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said:

 

'Copenhagen must deliver a comprehensive politically binding agreement, under the UNFCCC. Only this can deliver a legally binding treaty which puts the world on a trajectory to a maximum global average temperature increase of two degrees and provides a fair deal for developing countries. We want the Copenhagen agreement to lead to immediate action, without waiting years for final legal conclusion and ratification.'