COPENHAGEN (AP) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says “we have a deal” after a climate conference in Copenhagen decided to recognize a political accord brokered by President Barack Obama with China and other emerging powers.

But Ban says he’s “aware that this is just the beginning” of a process to craft a binding pact to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Still, Ban says the Copenhagen Agreement “will have an immediate operational effect.”

Many poor nations had bitterly protested the deal because it lacks specific targets for reducing carbon emissions.