The failure of last year's Copenhagen climate summit to produce a binding global agreement on reducing greenhouse gases is forcing governments and companies to take a more "bottom-up" approach to cutting emissions, the U.K.'s Chief Scientific Adviser John Beddington said Wednesday.
The failure of last year's Copenhagen climate summit to produce a binding global agreement on reducing greenhouse gases is forcing governments and companies to take a more "bottom-up" approach to cutting emissions, the U.K.'s Chief Scientific Adviser John Beddington said Wednesday.

Although the Copenhagen conference didn't meet expectations, it is important to note that big economies, including China , the U.S. , India , Brazil and the European Union, have recognized that climate change is a serious problem and they are investing in low-carbon technology, Beddington said.

The failure to agree a timetable for a binding treaty means that in the short term efforts to reduce carbon emissions would increasingly come from the national and regional level, including individual U.S. states, he said.

"I think the buy-in by the major economies that climate change is a problem and needs to be addressed by investment, including investment in our science and technology, is extraordinarily prevalent if not ubiquitous," he told a briefing hosted by the U.K. 's Energy Technologies Institute.

He said the pledge at last summer's Major Economies Forum to limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius showed the level of commitment.

"I think it's that which will be influencing the major corporations rather than whether a very complex U.N. system gets a unanimous vote from over 190 states," he added.

In December China , the U.S. , Brazil , South Africa and other countries signed the "Copenhagen Accord"--a non-binding agreement to cap the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius and reduce emissions.

But the accord disappointed many because a final pact wasn't reached, resulting in the need for future rounds of negotiations on the details.

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