HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Gordon Brown to push for legally binding treaty on climate [December 2009]

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 19 December 2009.

The Prime Minister has pledged to lead an international campaign to turn the agreements established at the Copenhagen summit on climate change into a legally binding treaty.

Speaking at the conclusion of the summit in Denmark late on Friday night, the PM said that nations had made progress and taken a “vital first step” but that more work was needed.

Mr Brown said that the international community had set a target to limit rises in global temperatures by 2050 to two degrees centigrade and for every nation to publish emissions plans to be held up for scrutiny by their peers.

The PM said:

“This is the first step we are taking towards a green and low carbon future for the world, steps we are taking together. First steps are difficult, but they are also necessary.

“Having taken that first step I hope that we can move quickly to the next step which is to get a legally binding treaty.”

US President Barack Obama described an agreement with several nations, including China and Brazil, as “meaningful and unprecedented” but acknowledged that there was “much further to go” in the fight against global warming.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that all nations had signed up to a plan to provide developing nations with up to $100 billion per year in climate change-related aid by 2020 and that follow up meetings to Copenhagen would be held in the German city of Bonn in six months time.