Copenhagen: Conference will create 2010 agreement – managers

Fund managers are cautiously optimistic about the outcome of the UN climate change in Copenhagen, though there is recognition any binding agreement will not materialise until the end of 2010.

Beginning today, the conference of 192 nations will attempt to agree a deal to reduce carbon emission targets, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012.

Managers believe the decision to postpone any final agreement until next year aids a successful conclusion to the two week negotiations.

"As the Copenhagen conference gets going it is becoming increasingly clear that the decision to delay the details of an agreement into 2010 has unblocked the conference, allowing global policy makers to try and hammer out a framework that can set the stage for a later agreement," Schroder Global Climate Change manager Simon Webber says.

Nicola Donnelly, co-manager of the WHEB Sustainability fund adds: "With the US, Indian and Chinese announcements a global compromise is now looking more likely and although we will not see anything legally binding coming out of Copenhagen, we could do by the end of 2010."

However there are still areas of contention for the delegates. Webber says the most difficult negotiation points will be the "relations between developed and developing nations"; while Donnelly says the US congress and the recent "heated questioning" of the science of climate change, are among stumbling blocks.