COP18 (03/12/12) – Geoffrey Lean, Daily Telegraph Environment Correspondent and the UK’s longest running environmental reporter talks about what he expects from the conference.

He says they rarely turn out as you expect, and uses the example of the hope put on the Copenhagen process and the disaster that emerged, meanwhile he said little was expected from Cancun and Durban and there more was achieved than anyone thought.

He says he expects this conference to continue plodding along the road to a climate deal. He hopes the second commitment period of Kyoto can be agreed, as well as a sign of increased action before 2015, citing a potential move from Qatar or Saudi Arabia.

He said the positive signs are that some of the major barriers to the process, the US, China and the Arab region are all showing signs of movement but he warns that 2015-2020 could be too late for the world.

While he says much of the movement is happening outside of the COP, without the international process, these achievements would not have taken place.