Danish PM upbeat on new global climate deal

The host of next month’s global climate conference yesterday said he saw momentum for a substantial, political deal to replace the Kyoto Treaty and said he hoped to convince top world leaders to attend.

With Kyoto set to run out in 2012, the talks are seen as the last chance for all countries to agree on painful measures needed to ease the pace of climate change.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he was optimistic that a politically-binding agreement could be agreed at the conference next month in Copenhagen but that the final legally-binding decisions would have to be taken later.

Mr Rasmussen, speaking in an interview to Reuters in Moscow after meeting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said he hoped there would be a substantial enough agreement on the table to entice national leaders to attend.

“Convinced is probably too big a word, but I have decided to stay optimistic about this because I have been engaged in talks with many leaders in the last couple of months and I sense a very strong political willingness to conclude a result in Copenhagen,” he said.

Denmark will host United Nations climate deal talks on December 7-18 that aim to set ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gases but also to raise funds to help poor countries tackle global warming.