This year’s UN climate change conference is a chance to take urgent action, say Andrew Pakes and Rachel Reeves – but securing a deal will be tough

The road to Copenhagen is paved with good intentions and competing demands for what should be included in the new treaty on global warming. The UK government has set a high bar for success, building on its own ambitions in the Climate Change Act for an 80% cut in emissions by 2050. Following on from April’s G20 summit in London, which achieved international agreement on measures to rebuild the global economy, the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December is a chance to rise to the urgent challenge of tackling global warming.

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