Australia tells Copenhagen Summit what it wants

News Com Au AUSTRALIA has told the Copenhagen summit it's time for "bold action'' on climate change.

"We want a success at Copenhagen, in fact we want a resounding success," Ms Hand said last night, to applause from the floor.

"We're committed to bold action, we're committed to a strong outcome."

"All governments have a responsibility to combat the threat of climate change."

The call to arms comes despite uncertainty about action at home, after the Liberal Opposition killed off the emissions trading scheme and elected Tony Abbott who's expressed doubts about climate science.

And the Copenhagen speech was made on behalf of some of the world's biggest economies.

Australia was speaking to the conference for the Umbrella Group, an informal arrangement of developed countries who are not from the European Union. The group includes the US, Japan and the Russian Federation.

Ms Hand, a senior Federal Government bureaucrat, said the Umbrella Group recognised the science that greenhouse gas emissions should halve by 2050 to limit global warming to two degrees.

The group's countries were ready to make that vision a reality by playing their full, fair part in a deal, she said.

"Copenhagen cannot be a business as usual outcome," Ms Hand said.

"All governments have a responsibility to combat the threat of climate change."

A key sticking point at the conference is how rich countries will fund poor ones to tackle climate change.

Ms Hand hinted there was strong support for a plan to find US$10 billion a year, by 2012, to kickstart the funding.

It now seems the fund is a done deal, with sources confirming key players have agreed to it.

Ms Hand stressed the importance of pledges to reduce emissions being internationally reviewed and reported on.

And she set out Australia's goal for the summit; that it forge a "Copenhagen accord", or political vision, to be cemented in a legally-binding treaty as soon as possible after the summit.

Conservationists have in the past accused the Umbrella Group of representing big polluters who were seeking to block a deal on climate change.

But with changes of government in the US, Australia and Japan, there is now some confusion