Delegates at the Copenhagen summit have passed a motion recognising a US-backed agreement on climate change. But correspondents say it is not yet clear whether the motion is unanimous or what its legal implications are.
Delegates at the climate summit had been battling to prevent the talks ending without reaching a final deal.
Earlier, a US-led group of five nations - including China - tabled a last-minute proposal that President Barack Obama called a “meaningful agreement”.
However, it had been rejected by a few developing nations which felt it failed to deliver the actions needed to halt dangerous climate change.
The majority of nations had been urging the Danish hosts to adopt the deal.
“The conference decides to take note of the Copenhagen Accord of December 18, 2009,” the chairman of the plenary session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) declared on Saturday morning, swiftly banging down his gavel.
To be accepted as an official UN agreement, the deal needs to be endorsed by all 193 nations at the talks.
On Friday evening, the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa reached a last-minute agreement on a number of issues, such as a recognition to limit temperature rises to less than 2 deg C.
However, a number of developing nations were angered by the draft proposals.
BBC environment correspondent Richard Black said the language in this text showed 2C was not a formal target, just that the group “recognises the scientific view that” the temperature increase should be held below this figure.
The five-nation proposal had promised to deliver US$30bn of aid for developing nations over the next three years, and outlined a goal of providing $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change.
The agreement also included a method for verifying industrialised nations’ reduction of emissions. The US had insisted that China dropped its resistance to this measure.
During the two-week gathering, small island nations and vulnerable coastal countries had been calling for a binding agreement that would limit emissions to a level that would prevent temperatures rising more than 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial levels.
