Combet to head Durban delegation

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet will head up Australia's delegation to the United Nations climate change talks in Durban later this year.

Mr Combet will lead a delegation of 40 officials at the talks in South Africa in late November and early December.

Climate change department secretary Blair Comley on Monday said Climate Change Ambassador Louise Hand would stand in as delegation leader until the minister arrived.

Asked to confirm Mr Combet would definitely attend, Mr Comley told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday: "That's the intention."

Australia was represented by then prime minister Kevin Rudd and more than 100 officials at Copenhagen in 2009, when world leaders failed to reach a binding climate deal.

Just over half the 40-member delegation travelling to Durban will come from the climate change department.

"It (the delegation) will be more comparable to Cancun (in 2010), obviously, than Copenhagen," Ms Hand said on Monday.

Australia now believes a legally binding global agreement on cutting carbon emissions should not be signed until 2015.

In the interim it wants countries to work towards establishing "a common international framework for mitigation targets and actions".

Ms Hand said on Monday it was "completely daft" to imagine that every year countries should come up with a perfect legally binding agreement.

"It's never been known to happen in the course of multilateral negotiations - forever," she said.

"If you can get incremental progress and make it stick and accommodate a large number of countries' national interests, you're doing very well."

Hotel costs for Australia's Durban delegation will total $245,000. The bill for airfares and security is not yet known.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's office later confirmed she would not be attending the Durban talks.