Climate Change contracts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8341542.stm

However, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said world leaders are unlikely to agree on a comprehensive treaty in Copenhagen. He said it was more likely there would only be agreement on principles.

UN officials have also recently declared there is no chance of agreeing all elements of a new legally-binding UN treaty before the end of the year.

Climate Change contract rules say

Any reduction target must be part of a UNFCCC agreement reached before the end of 2009. Any agreement to reduce CO2 emissions made outside of the UNFCCC will not be considered for expiry purposes.

A reduction target does not have to be ratified for the contracts to be expired - only agreed to under the UNFCCC.

If there is no agreement before the end of 2009 then all contracts will expire at 0.

So what happens if there is 'agreement on principles' but haven't agreed 'all elements of a new legally-binding UN treaty'. Presumably there would be some form of communique saying the principles have been agreed. But if not all elements are agreed there presumably wouldn't be a legally-binding UN treaty in existance at the deadline date.

I would suggest this isn't the same as ratification being outstanding and in particular it is not part of 'a UNFCCC agreement reached before the end of 2009'.

However, perhaps clarification would be a good idea.

(On my interpretation I would suggest the value of EU 10% should be under 25 rather than over 70. That value hasn't moved for many months despite severe recession which might make further harm to economy even less palateable.)