Mexico unlikely to deliver climate treaty

Connie Hedegaard the minister in charge of the Copenhagen Climate Change conference last year and the new European commissioner for climate change, has admitted that negotiations are not progressing fast enough for a treaty to be signed this year.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Hedegaard admitted: "To get every detail set in the next nine months looks very difficult. Europe would love that to happen, and I would love that to happen […] but my feeling is that it is going to be very difficult to get a treaty."

Expectations that a treaty could be signed at a UN summit in Mexico at the end of this year had been raised following the failure of COP-15 to deliver a binding agreement on carbon emissions cuts between the world’s nations.

Hedegaard’s pessimism was given further weight yesterday when German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press conference held with visiting Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed that the focus for this year’s negotiations had shifted from seeking a binding agreement to building on the Copenhagen Accord’s voluntary pledges.

So far all the major emitters, except Russia, have signed the accord, which aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Last month, outgoing executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer also said he didn’t believe a treaty would be signed this year.

These warnings deal a blow to business calls for a swift global agreement on climate change. Business groups and leaders, including Virgin’s Richard Branson, British Airways’ Willie Walsh and Shell UK’s James Smith, have emphasized the need for a binding deal so that business has the confidence to invest in a low carbon economy.

Hedegaard told the Financial Times a deal was now more likely to happen at a follow-up meeting next year in South Africa.