Governments will begin negotiations on what the new climate agreement should look like.

But climate agreements so far have exempted the poorer countries from obligations to reduce the release of greenhouse gases.

That group is not expected to begin talks on a global climate agreement until the end of 1990, at the earliest.

All countries will have to provide financial resources so that developing countries, too, can participate in a climate agreement.

Reallocating money that has already been promised would only jeopardise our ability to reach a global climate agreement.

There is a general conviction that the basic foundations of a climate agreement for the period after 2012 will and must be laid in Copenhagen.

From this meagre outcome, we now need to move on towards a proper climate agreement.

This would be the best way to promote the achievement of something we must have in Durban next year: a comprehensive international climate agreement.

The climate agreement is neither one thing nor another.

That may spur him to try to ensure a global climate agreement is part of his legacy.