To be honest it comes as a slight disappointment that just weeks before the Copenhagen meeting opens Dec. 7 the United Nations have to signal that we have to scale back expectations about the outcome.  Janos Pasztor, director of the secretary-general’s Climate Change Support Team, said that it is hard to say how far the deals will go, because the US Congress has not agreed on a climate bill yet. Another problem is the fact that industrialized nations still haven’t agreed on the funding to help developing countries limit their discharges.

Sometimes it appears that nations don’t want to accept the fact that we are all in this together and that there’s just not much time left. He also told a press conference that  ”there is tremendous activity by governments in capitals and internationally to shape the outcome”, which he calls good development because dedicated  political leadership is essential to make a deal. Another major problem is that industrialized nations have not agreed on targets to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and how to incorporate such targets into their economies.

It now appears unlikely that a successor to the Kyoto Agreement will be reached, but instead a  groundwork to finalize the treaty will be laid out. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told a meeting of business leaders in Seattle that while negotiators would work to try to finalize a deal in December, there was a chance that certain elements of the treaty would be delayed until next year. But the principles of a deal must be settled at the conference in December, the UN’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer said, and that apparently it is  physically impossible to finalize all the details of a treaty in Copenhagen at this stage. Governments will be pushed as far as it goes to reach an agreement.

De Boer says the key to reaching an accord during the December conference in the Danish capital will be for wealthy countries to offer a financial package to help poorer countries adapt to inevitable climate changes and to shift toward low-carbon technologies for energy and development. This call is indented for the E.U. leaders who meet in Brussels for a two day summit this week in order to declare their financial contribution, which are then expected to produce commitments from developing countries. “Money is the oil that encourages commitments and drives action,” de Boer says from his office in Bonn, Germany. At least $10 billion (€6.8 billion) should be earmarked for developing countries immediately, he says. He welcomes a call by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Europe to offer €10 billion ($15 billion) in upfront financing. British energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband praised encouraging sign from the U.S., Japan, and large emerging economies like China who have respected this deadline and are positively pushing forward their agendas.

Eventually, hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent annually to avert scientific predictions of potentially catastrophic changes in sea levels, weather patterns and water resources. Yvo de Boer concluded that the finer points will be concluded within a year, ready to take over once the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 expires. He also stressed that time is running out. Ed Miliband urged politicians to stronger promote positive impacts of these commitments, such as increased employment, lower risks from natural disasters and more energy security. Giving evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee of MPs he concluded with a quote: “Martin Luther King did not say ‘I have a nightmare’, he said ‘I have a dream’.”

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