Climate: U.N. optimistic that Mexico summit gets it done

BONN, Germany, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The top U.N. climate official admitted the Copenhagen summit did not deliver enough but still gave countries "all the ingredients" for an ambitious deal to be brokered at the next conference in Mexico in December.

"I don't think Copenhagen delivered enough," Yvo de Boer said in his first news conference since a U.N. climate conference that many called an utter failure.

Rich nations refused to commit to legally binding emissions reductions, and developing countries did not want to have their efforts monitored.

"The window of opportunity to come to grips with this issue is now closing faster than before," de Boer said.

However, the official, who probably knows more about the negotiations than any other person on the planet, vowed that Copenhagen was not a complete failure.

He said Copenhagen achieved three things:

-- It raised climate change to the highest level of government as around 120 world leaders attended;

-- It produced a non-binding political accord that "reflects a political consensus on the long-term global response to climate change that is needed";

-- Negotiations farther away from the cameras brought "an almost full set of decisions to implement rapid climate change action near to completion."

"So in a way Copenhagen did not produce the final cake, but it left countries with all the right ingredients to bake a new one in Mexico," he said. "If countries follow Copenhagen's outcomes clearly with their eyes firmly fixed on the advantages of global action then we can finish the job."

Experts have blasted the so-called Copenhagen Accord, a non-binding text that was merely noted but not adopted by the 192 conference parties.

The text sets the limit of global warming to 3.6 F and provides short and long-term finance to help poor nations cope with climate change; it also set 2015 as a review year to see if global action needs to be more urgent to meet the challenge. But it remains a voluntary text, and even if nations commit to it, they are not legally bound to honor their pledges.

The text can nevertheless be used as "a political tool that … we can very usefully deploy to resolve the remaining issues in the negotiating process."

That's why de Boer has asked all countries to sign on to the accord and submit emissions-reduction targets and action plans by the end of this month -- a "soft deadline," he said, so nations can still associate with the accord at a later date.

The short-term challenge is to revive the negotiations.

De Boer said he would travel to Mexico next month to discuss with President Felipe Calderon how to move negotiations forward in the course of this year. He has already contacted around 20 countries about their ideas to improve the process and will talk with many more leaders in the months to come.

"Many feel we need an intensified negotiating schedule in the course of 2010 in order to get the job done," De Boer said.

That means there could be another round of negotiations scheduled ahead or after the one in Bonn in late May.