Less than 24 hours to go

With less than 24 hours left before the conference ends, Ed held a press briefing in the British Delegation offices.

He said he was more optimistic than he had felt yesterday. There had been a big move today from the U.S. on the issue of finance. The Americans seem to have accepted our suggestion about the level of finance necessary.

The groups were meeting again: the two plenaries had broken into 2-3 working groups.

There needs to be a mix of mechanisms for finance which need to be developed over the next few years.

He was asked about China and said that he was really pleased that they had committed to targets, but there needed to be some transparency.

He also explained that the presence of world leaders was very important. They are here to make a difference. Ministers negotiate over text and the Leaders make the big decisions.

He was also asked about there was a chance that all this could be pulled together in time for a deal. Kyoto had gone right to the wire, all night, looked like it was going to collapse and yet didn't.

But it remains a challenge to bring the process and substance together.

In answer to a question about whether there might not be a better process for making decisions, he said this is the best one we have, with all its flaws.