Commonwealth Heads of Government leaders are quickly moving towards supporting a comprehensive and legally binding agreement on climate change in Copenhagen.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Patrick Manning along with Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, Danish Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, and Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the announcement at a media conference on Saturday.



The Prime Minister, who advised that many contacts were made outside of the United Nations mechanism and CHOGM, said leaders met yesterday in extensive discussion and have come to a conclusion on the matter of a climate change international policy.



Mr Manning referred to the variety of CHOGM member states which comprise rich and poor nations, large and small, industrialised, developed and emerging economies and said this greatly assisted in reaching a resolution to this critical situation. He then declared that the resolution will be called The Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus; Commonwealth Declaration, 2009.

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd then spoke about bringing about a comprehensive and legally binding agreement in Copenhagen. He assured that this consensus is significant to ensuring success in Copenhagen confirming that the full weight of leaders was behind the process in Denmark with the close collaboration of the United Nations. He also stated he was encouraged by the fact that consenting leaders made up one-third of the COP15 parties grouping.

 For his part, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon expressed his gratitude to the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister for what he described as a unique opportunity to engage CHOGM Heads and was encouraged by the shared desire of leaders to ensure a substantive agreement in Copenhagen. He advised leaders to stay focused, stay committed and to seal a deal in Copenhagen.

 ‘We are united in purpose, not yet in action. Our proposed agreement must be ambitious, comprehensive, binding and with immediate operational effect, both in the short and long term. We must give priority to the most vulnerable states. Momentum is growing and most leaders are committed to participation in Copenhagen. The United Nations will continue to support efforts in this regard.”

Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Lokke Rasmussen also thanked Prime Minister Manning for the opportunity to network and share concerns on climate change with the leaders of CHOGM. He said he was very impressed by CHOGM statements and referred to clauses seven and thirteen of the Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus; the Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration.

He pledged to work towards ensuring a substantial outcome in Denmark next month and highlighted the fact that climate change finance is key to achieving an agreement in Copenhagen.

The Prime Minister said he was convinced an ambitious agreement could be reached in Denmark and confirmed that eighty-nine Heads of Government had agreed to attend the conference in December.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning then concluded the conference by announcing that Trinidad and Tobago would be the ninetieth (90) nation to attend.