United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said Monday that he doubts that member states would reach a new global climate change deal in December at a conference in Cancun, Mexico.

A better approach might consist of small steps in separate fields that built toward wider consensus rather than aiming for one sweeping pact, Ban said at a news conference at the UN.

“Climate change, I think, has been making progress, even though we have not reached such a point where we will have a globally agreed, comprehensive deal,” he told reporters.

Preliminary negotiations toward  a deal involving all 192 member states ended last week without a result. There is only one more round of talks leading up to Cancun.