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Following the Copenhagen Agreement, Australian Prime Minister laid out his country's perspective and hailed the agreement to be a landmark in the fiight against climate change.

This Copenhagen Accord will now be submitted to the conference of parties for approval. This Copenhagen Accord is a significant global agreement on climate change action. It is the first global agreement on climate change action between rich countries and poor countries. This is the first time that rich countries and poor countries have agreed that we should keep our temperature increases within two degrees Celsius. This is the first time that both rich countries and poor countries have both agreed on actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the first time that there is agreement between rich countries and poor countries on international verification mechanisms on actions taken.

And this is the first time that we have an agreement between rich countries and poor countries on the finance necessary to support mitigation efforts, the adaptation efforts of the most vulnerable countries of the world. Much more remains to be done. Much more work is still to be done, and we'll be putting our shoulder to the wheel to make sure that work is done. The next conference of the parties will be held in Mexico, and that'll be during the course of 2010 at a date to be determined. And there is much work to be done in taking this Copenhagen Accord through to its conclusion in a final treaty arrangement.

The truth is, as of twenty four hours ago, these negotiations stood at a point of complete collapse. The difference between the parties was huge, and huge on a number of significant policy disagreements. However, through the negotiating efforts of a large number of countries and their leaders and their representatives- and I've got to say in particular the overnight session led by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong- we were able to narrow those areas of disagreement, and as I said, at one o'clock this morning, we finally concluded these arrangements. Again, subject to the Copenhagen Accord being presented to the conference of parties, which I understand will occur later this morning in Copenhagen.

This has probably been the toughest set of negotiations that I've been involved in. Penny has been through this perhaps a little bit more intensely than I have in the past. To have been upfront and personal with such a range of deeply held policy views from different countries which threatened to collapse the entire show was a difficult time for us all, but we have worked our way through this. The final thing I'd say before taking your questions is this- this is an important agreement on climate change action for Australia. Australia is among the hottest and driest continents on earth, where the effects of climate change are felt first and hardest. Australia, therefore, has a fundamental national interest in obtaining a global agreement on climate change action.

When we look at the next generation of Australian kids, when we look at the challenge for Australian industry for the future, and when we look at the challenge facing our natural environment, including the Great Barrier Reef, for the future, there is no alternative course of action other than global climate change action. This represents a significant global agreement. A huge amount of work still remains to be done. But the alternative, which we confronted, staring into the abyss at midnight last night with these negotiations collapsing altogether and throwing back all progress that has been reached in recent times in global climate change action.