Miliband concedes Copenhagen may not deliver legally binding deal

In a debate in Parliament, Miliband told MPs that United Nations negotiations were moving “too slowly and not going well” and “the agreement may be a political agreement” rather than a legal one. It is the first time the Government has conceded that Copenhagen may not deliver on a new global treaty.

Earlier on Thursday (November 5), European officials attending the final round of talks on climate change in Barcelona before the 192-nation conference in Copenhagen, admitted they were now striving for a political agreement rather than a legal one at next month’s summit.

"People are more and more talking about a framework […] that you clarify further in the following months," Artur Runge-Metzger, chief delegate from the European Union Commission told the Press Association.

The Copenhagen Climate Summit was expected to ratify a new global treaty on climate change to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Officials are now suggesting that a political agreement, which would rely on commitments from both developed and developing nations – including firm targets for reducing carbon emissions and the allocation of funds to poorer nations – may be all that can be hoped for by next month. It means the timetable for a reaching a legal agreement could now be extended to six months, even a year.

The main reason for the delay is the fact that the US Congress is struggling to pass a domestic climate change bill before the end of year.

There is also growing distrust between rich and poor nations about who is going to fund and by how much climate adaptation and low carbon development in the developing world.

Earlier this week, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has been meeting in Barcelona over the last five days, said: “Copenhagen does not need to come up with all the fine-print of a climate change deal. But it needs to ensure that the heart of an agreed outcome is functional and that implementation can swiftly begin.”

Yesterday, Miliband seemed to echo his words in the House of Commons: “The important thing about the agreement we seek in December is that although it may be a political agreement, it must lead, on a very clear timetable, to a legally binding treaty. In other words, in December, we must set the terms of the movement to such a treaty, because that is very important.”