After two weeks of negotiations, an 11th hour agreement between 27 key countries on a watered-down declaration has avoided the total collapse of the COP15 Climate Summit.

Meetings between particularly the United States, China, India and South Africa were able to forge agreement on some of the contentious issues such as verification that have dogged the negotiations, while others such as a binding agreement remain unresolved and postponed.

It remains unclear how many of the other nations at the summit fully support the declaration. Many, particularly developing nations, will be disappointed that Copenhagen did not end with a binding agreement.

The BBC quotes a U.S. official as saying that no country ‘was entirely satisfied’ but that the deal was a ‘historic step forward’, although admitting it was not sufficient to curb climate change in the future.

According to the Washington Post, the countries have agreed on a verification system, but with less ambitious climate targets.

"Developed and developing countries have now agreed to listing their national actions and commitments, a finance mechanism, to set a mitigation target of 2 degrees Celsius and to provide information on the implementation of their actions through national communications, with provisions for international consultations and analysis under clearly defined guidelines," the Washington Post quoted an American official as saying.