For the United Nations climate change negotiations next week in Copenhagen to be a success, world leaders will need to agree on three major facets of a political agreement, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, on a conference call with reporters today.

First, de Boer said, the U.N. will need clear emissions targets from developed countries as well as commitments from poorer nations on how they will limit the growth of their emissions, especially the emerging economies of China, India and Brazil. Secondly, the conference should prompt immediate action to curb the adverse effects of climate change in developing countries and jump-start development of clean technologies. Lastly, de Boer and Kerry both emphasized that developed countries will need to agree to some sort of short-term financial package to aid developing nations to help them combat climate change and introduce new technologies.

"I'm confident that Copenhagen can be a success," Kerry said, adding that an outline agreement "then merely has to be codified, reduced to treaty language over the course of the next months."

De Boer said there is "growing consensus" on the proposed financing package for poorer nations and that leaders have agreed that between now and 2012, $10 billion a year will be needed for poorer nations. Kerry recently sent a letter to the administration asking for $3 billion to be included in next year's budget to contribute to this global fund.

In terms of the other two measures of success, Kerry said the U.S. is prepared to act right away and that the Obama administration is going to offer a 17 percent emissions reduction target below 2005 levels by 2020. "If we can come up with prompt action -- and I believe we can -- the U.S. can actually engage in those activities administratively right at the outset without even having the legislation," Kerry said, referring to the EPA's authority to regulate emissions.

Kerry is confident Congress can forge a bipartisan climate bill. "I can count -- I'm not going to give you a specific number -- but there are definite Republican votes right now. And we hope to grow that over the course of the next weeks and months."

Kerry said he and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are meeting Friday to discuss what -- if anything -- they can present of their bipartisan outline during the negotiations. Reiterating predictions he gave reporters earlier this week, Kerry said that he is "certainly prepared -- speaking for myself and based on where we are at -- to be able to give a pretty good outline to folks in Copenhagen about what will be contained in legislation, whether it's formal or otherwise."

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