Ministers hail 11th-hour deal at climate talks

The deal, which was finally agreed as the talks in Durban, South Africa, overran by almost 36 hours, commits all countries – including major polluters the US and China – to negotiate a legally enforceable treaty on cutting emissions by 2015.

Under the agreement, brokered after a last-ditch compromise between the European Union and India in a “huddle” on the floor of the conference hall, the treaty will come into force from 2020.

It is the first time the biggest polluters, the US, China and India, have all signed up to negotiate a legal deal that will see them cut their emissions. The last attempt ended in failure at UN talks in Copenhagen two years ago, with just a voluntary accord drawn up.

There are hopes the new roadmap a will lead to a legally-binding deal which will cover all major economies. But environmental groups say a deal that does not come into force until 2020 does not match up to what the science says is needed and negotiators had failed to show the ambition necessary to cut emissions by levels that would limit global temperature rises to no more than 2C and avoid “dangerous” climate change.

The EU had come to the talks calling for a mandate to negotiate a new legally binding treaty on global warming by 2015, covering all major emitters, in return for the bloc signing up to a second period of emissions cuts under the existing Kyoto climate deal.

The talks had seemed deadlocked amid efforts by some major emitters to agree a watered down version of the roadmap that would not necessarily commit countries to a legally-binding deal. European negotiators warned they could not accept the weakened agreement, warning that “international problems require international legislation”, but India led the countries pushing for it, claiming they could not sign up to negotiate a legally-binding deal without knowing what would be in it or if it would be fair to poorer countries.

A compromise, suggested by the Brazilian delegation, saw the EU and India agree to a road map which commits countries to negotiating a protocol, another legal instrument or an “agreed outcome with legal force”.

The Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne insisted the agreement was not a fudge, and had delivered exactly what the EU had wanted – a roadmap to a legal agreement with a timeline to complete negotiations. He added: “We’ve managed to put this on the map and bring all the major emitters like the US, India and China into a road map which will secure an overarching global deal.”

Also agreed was a green climate fund to channel billions of pounds to poor countries to help them cope with impacts of global warming such as floods and drought - but no sources of money, such as a tax on shipping, were identified.

Keith Allott, head of climate change at WWF-UK, said: “Governments have salvaged a path forward for negotiations, but we must be under no illusion – the outcome of Durban leaves us with the prospect of being legally bound to a world of 4C warming.

“This would be catastrophic for people and the natural world. Governments have spent crucial days focused on a handful of specific words in the negotiating text, but have paid little heed to repeated warnings from the scientific community that much stronger, urgent action is needed to cut emissions.”

Friends of the Earth’s Andy Atkins said: “The UN climate change process is still alive – but this empty shell of a plan leaves the planet hurtling towards catastrophic climate change.”