Leaders back delay to final deal on climate

President Barack Obama and other world leaders yesterday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, but European negotiators said the move did not imply weaker action.

Some argued that legal technicalities might otherwise distract the talks in Copenhagen and it was better to focus on the core issue of cutting climate-warming emissions.

“Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not possible,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told the leaders. “The Copenhagen Agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion,” he said.