The Wall Street Journal reports that UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said "UN.-led talks in Copenhagen in December to reach a global deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avert climate change are in danger of collapse"
BBC News has lengthier coverage.
Prospects for reaching a new global deal on climate change are "in the balance", according to UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
There is a "real chance" that December's UN summit in Copenhagen will not reach agreement, he said.
This is the strongest admission yet from a senior UK minister that a deal is not necessarily in the bag; and with only three months left until the summit, environmental organisations agreed that the pace and intensity of diplomacy needed to be stepped up.
"[David] Miliband's acknowledgement that the EU must harness political will right now, in order to make a sustainable future a possibility, is very welcome," said David Norman, head of campaigns at WWF UK.
"Copenhagen is fast approaching, and high level discussions over the next few weeks will determine whether we can achieve a decent global deal in December or if we will shackle ourselves to a future of runaway climate change."
