UK energy minister "frustrated" by talks

Annie and Aakash interviewing UK Energy MInister Ed Miliband at the climate conference

Progress has been painfully slow here at the climate change summit and there was a lot of confusion - even, it turned out, among government ministers.

After waiting for more than 3 hours to find out about further developments in the negotiations, a group of young people from the UK tracked down and surrounded Ed Miliband and demanded some answers.

Campaigner questions

As the Secretary of State for Climate Change walked into the main plenary sessions, around 20 young campaigners questioned him on the day's events and why the talks had hit such problems.

The minister admitted he was "very, very frustrated" with the arguments over the process of the talks rather than their actual substance. "This is the difficulty of negotiating with 192 countries," he said.

"The negotiations are not going as well as they should be," he explained. "We are trying to sort of say 'look let's make some progress' but I think it's up to the negotiators to try and push this thing through - get our act together - to be honest."

Process v progress

However, campaigner Isobel Ellis-Cockcroft, 18, from Stroud, Gloucestershire was not satisfied with his answer. "It's difficult but I still think it would help if the UK would stand up in the plenary and call for - encourage everyone - to move this forward," she said.

Mr Miliband said he agreed and assured the group that he and other European leaders were trying their best. He said: "The truth is we can spend the next 3 or 4 days arguing about the process - and that will mean that we fail. And people need to realise that."

When asked what might happen next, a tired-looking Mr Miliband replied: "I don't know, I don't know," and joked: "Don't ask me - I'm just a minister," before heading back to the talks.

This story has featured on BBC News School Report.

See Annie and Aakash's interview with Ed Miliband on the road to Copenhagen.