In December this year, parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will descend on Copenhagen to wrangle over the details of a new global climate deal — a potential successor to the Kyoto Protocol. See Nature’s Road to Copenhagen special for more coverage.

“Copenhagen will be judged on the social justice embodied in it, and within a financial framework. I am looking forward to that debate, but I hope that I will have the key to the door so that I do not let the buggers out until they have done a deal.”

John Prescott, UK politician and Rapporteur for Climate Change for the Council of Europe, presents his unique approach to the forthcoming talks to Parliament.

“We will try to make the summit successful and we will not accept that it ends with an empty and so-called political declaration.”

Li Gao, Chinese government climate change negotiator, says China wants a meaningful result from Copenhagen (Xinhua).

“Some of the numbers being banded around seem worryingly low given China’s weight of economic growth but we remain confident that China will ultimately offer us an emissions reduction target that represents a significant reduction from business as usual.”

An unnamed European diplomat expresses some concern about what China might bring to the table (Guardian).

“It is significant that Australia – a country with significant coal resources, dependence on coal for electricity generation, and great sensitivity of its energy-intensive industries to international competition with Asian countries – would move forward with a climate policy.”

Robert Stavins, director of Harvard University’s environmental economics program, comments on the Rudd government getting ever closer to passing a climate bill bringing in a cap and trade system (Bloomberg).