UN aims to finalise Copenhagen by summer 2010

The UN is hoping to see an international climate change treaty completed by summer next year

The UN is hoping to see an international climate change treaty completed by summer next year, following the growing consensus that next month's Copenhagen climate summit will deliver only a non-binding political agreement.

Some commentators had suggested that expected failure to finalise a deal next month will result in a year's delay, with a successor to the Kyoto Treaty not signed until the UN's next global climate change meeting in Mexico in December 2010.

However, speaking to reporters yesterday, Janos Pasztor, climate adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said that the UN would try to see the final Treaty completed within six months.

He said that Ban had "consulted with a number of heads of state and so far the general feeling seems to be that we should try to complete the job earlier than later." He added that as a result, the additional negotiations were more likely to take six months rather than 12 – although he admitted that the timeline could slip further if the US fails to pass a climate bill in the spring.

Negotiators at the Copenhagen summit will also work to deliver a detailed framework for the final Treaty, containing clear emission targets for industrialised nations, according to Pasztor. "That's exactly what is the expectation and that is what we feel is possible," he added.

Pasztor's comments came as Gordon Brown and his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd yesterday became the first world leaders to confirm that they will definitely attend the Copenhagen Summit.

Brown had said back in September that he would attend the meeting if his presence was required to help complete a deal, but a spokesman confirmed yesterday that he had accepted an invitation from Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and would be at the summit for its last two days on December 17 and 18.

He will be joined by Rudd, who said he too would attend the last two days of the summit and urged other world leaders to do likewise. "All heads of government around the world have been extended an invitation," he said. "It is important that as many heads of government as physically possible attend this conference in order to lend momentum to the outcome that will be necessary."

Rasmussen has issued personal invitations to 191 world leaders, and it is looking increasingly likely that many will attend the closing days of the summit.

Significantly, President Obama said that he will attend if his presence can help secure a deal, while more than 40 leaders have either said they plan to attend or have hinted strongly that they will do so, including French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.