The move towards global and immediate action on climate change has been agreed as part of the Copenhagen Accord, following two weeks of intensive negotiations and two years of talks.

The Accord – agreed by major developed and developing country leaders and backed by a large majority of countries – reinforces the need for strong domestic action on climate change across the world, as the UK is itself doing through its Low Carbon Transition Plan.

The Accord agreed at Copenhagen represents the start of a new chapter on climate change, even if it does not provide everything we wanted.

The Accord includes:

• international backing for an overall limit of 2 degrees on global warming;
• agreement that all countries, developing as well as developed countries, need to take action on climate change;
• and the provision of immediate and longer term financial help to those countries most at risk of climate change.

For the first time, the new Copenhagen Accord will also:

• List what each and every country is doing to tackle climate change – including economy-wide commitments to cut emissions by developed countries and actions by developing countries.
• Introduce real scrutiny and transparency to ensure emission targets are put into effect, with mandatory reporting every two years for developing countries.
• Provide billion of immediate short term funding from developed countries over the next three years to kick start emission reduction measures and help the poorest countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
• Commit developed countries to work to provide long term financing of 0 billion a year by 2020, a figure first put forward by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in June of this year.

What happens next?

The UK and other countries will now be working to convert the accord into a legally binding agreement as soon as possible.

But we know we need to go much further. We need more certainty and a greater scale of ambition.

At home...
We are determined to build and sustain the momentum behind the low carbon transition in the UK.

Building on the low carbon transition plan, a world-leading policy on coal, and our plans for nuclear, in the coming weeks, the Government will be making further announcements on energy generation and offshore wind, household energy efficiency and transport.

Internationally...
Broadening the commitments is vital.

• 50 countries is not enough. To tackle this global problem we need a much wider group of signatories.
• The United Nations is seeking to persuade more countries to sign up to the Accord. The UK is determined to play its part in making this happen.

We must act to deepen the commitments on emissions reductions made by countries across the world.

• Developed countries must take the lead. For Europe that means pressing forward with our commitment to 30% reductions by 2020 compared to 1990 in the context of high ambition from others.
• The UK will work intensively up to the end of January deadline and, beyond if necessary, to ensure Europe can move to this high level of ambition.
• We will continue to press all countries, including the United States for the deepest possible cuts in their emissions.

We must act to strengthen the Accord, including by continuing our effort to secure a legally binding framework.

• In taking on clear targets and actions we should recognise how far major developing countries have come.
• We must also seek to allay their concern that they will be constrained from growth and development by the demands of a legal treaty.
• And we must also draw on the coalition between some of the world’s richest, developed countries and some of the world’s poorest developing countries, all of whom want a legally binding structure.

We must reform the process.

• These efforts to make progress on substance must be accompanied by reform of the process of decision making. Part of the frustration felt by many about this conference was that it was stymied by process arguments.
• We also believe that the urgency of this cause dictates that the process of dialogue and negotiations must restart as soon as possible.
• We welcome the decision by Chancellor Merkel to host a Conference as part of the mid-year negotiations in Bonn, and will work with the incoming Mexican Presidency who will be hosting COP 16 in November.