On Sunday, 15 November during the Asia Pacific summit in Singapore, President Obama put his weight behind the "one agreement, two steps approach" in the UN climate change negotiations, explaining that a good agreement was more important than the timing.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen outlined a 5-8 page political agreement to be the basis for the COP15 meeting in a few weeks times. While UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said that he expects the legally binding agreement to follow within approximately half a year, and in any case before the COP16 in Mexico in December 2010.

Latest developments

·         After the Asia Pacific summit in Singapore, it emerged that the legally binding deal on climate change will be delayed, as US President Barack Obama now also supports a 'one agreement, two steps' approach (a political deal, not a full legal treaty, in Copenhagen);

·         The agreement on a new treaty have stalled over developed countries' reluctance to commit to concrete financial aid for developing countries and the lack of commitment to sufficient CO2 reduction targets;

·         Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen outlined a plan for a 5-8 page "political agreement" in Copenhagen to cover key issues such as curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, and that sets a deadline for agreeing a binding legal text in future; 

·         BUT there are still supporters of a full treaty in Copenhagen: African nations, the least developed countries, small island states and some European nations; 

·         Country positions:

o    Japan & the USA: agreed on Friday they would aim to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and back a global goal to halve emissions by mid-century

o    China: Yi Xianliang, counsellor at the department of treaty and law at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is negotiating in the climate talks, said the target of a 50% global cut in the original draft APEC statement was "very controversial"

o    South Korea:  the toughest of three voluntary emission targets, minus 4% from 2005 levels by 2020

o    Brazil: take its emissions back to 1990s levels by 2020 - potentially a cut of some 20% from the 2.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases it produced in 2005

Next steps

End of November 2009 - Special EU environment ministers' meeting on climate change

10-11 December 2009 - European summit

7-18 December 2009 - UN climate conference in Copenhagen (COP 15)

Spring 2010 - Possible extra UN summit on climate change

December 2010 - UN climate conference in Mexico (COP 16)

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