Gordon Brown to attend climate change talks

Gordon Brown has confirmed that he will attend the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen next month after Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen issued invitations to 191 world leaders.

Published: 6:47PM GMT 12 Nov 2009
Gordon Brown confirmed today that he will attend the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen next month after Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen issued invitations to 191 world leaders.
Mr Brown was the first world leader to announce in September that he was ready to go to Copenhagen to help secure a deal. He will be hoping that other prime ministers and presidents - particularly the US's Barack Obama - follow his lead and go to the Danish capital.

The Prime Minister and other world leaders are expected to attend the final days of the two-week summit on December 17 and 18, when he hopes that political agreement will be reached on a post-Kyoto framework for reducing the carbon emissions blamed for global warming.
Mr Brown's spokesman announced today that he had accepted Mr Rasmussen's invitation, adding: "Although there is much to be done in the next 30 days, clearly this is one of the issues which is top of the Prime Minister's mind at the moment."
He said Britain has accepted that it will not get the legal treaty on carbon cuts which Mr Brown was initially hoping for at Copenhagen, but believes that a political agreement leading to a clear timetable on a legally-binding deal would be "from our point of view, a result".
Mr Obama said on Monday that he will attend the summit if he believed "we are on the brink of a meaningful agreement and my presence in Copenhagen will make a difference in tipping us over the edge".
In his letters, sent out to heads of state and government around the world by diplomatic channels today, Mr Rasmussen said their attendence "is a pivotal contribution to a successful outcome" to the December 7-18 conference.
At least 40 leaders have said they plan to attend the conference, including French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil has indicated he might come to the conference, and a spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel said she is keeping the date open.
Mr Brown wrote to President Lula today to congratulate him on announcing an ambitious target to cut Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions by 38%-42% by 2020.
The Prime Minister has been "hitting the phones" in recent days, speaking to Mr Rasmussen and leaders of a range of countries to push for agreement at Copenhagen, as well as meeting UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in Downing Street, said Downing Street.
Environment group Greenpeace said President Obama must now follow the lead of 40 heads of state - including Mr Brown - who have said they are going to the conference.
Greenpeace Denmark's Tove Ryding said: "Every head of state must turn up in Copenhagen and secure a ground-breaking agreement and stop climate chaos. The consequences of failure will be on their heads - now is the time to avert mass starvation, mass migration and mass extinction.
"By turning up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit and seizing the moment, world leaders can place the world on a sustainable pathway, saving hundreds of millions of lives, avoiding mass extinctions and stimulate a green economy creating millions of jobs.
"What possible excuse could they have to stay away?"