Nature News: Climate summit fails to address key challenges

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http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090923/full/news.2009.944.html

Published online 23 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.944

News: Briefing

Climate summit fails to address key challenges

Lack of progress threatens global deal.

Jeff Tollefson

Some had hoped for a breakthrough as global leaders convened for a global-warming summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday. Early indications suggest otherwise, but leaders of the major economies will get a second chance when the G20 meets in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday. Nature takes a closer look.

Expectations were high for both US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Did either rise to the occasion?

Everybody is looking for signs of progress from the two biggest emitters, who together account roughly 40% of emissions, but neither president offered the kind of commitments needed to re-energize the talks. Obama was in the unenviable position of needing to make bold promises before the US Congress has weighed in on the issue. Nonetheless, he declined to acknowledge, let alone address head on, the challenges he is facing on the domestic front.

For his part, Hu largely underscored existing policies, promising to expand forests, produce 15% of the country's power using renewable energy and decrease energy intensity per unit of gross domestic product by a "notable margin" between now and 2020. All of these would substantially reduce Chinese emissions compared with baseline forecasts, and China is beginning to win some praise for its energy policies. Nonetheless, cumulative emissions are expected to continue rising, and Hu made no reference to any specific emissions targets or a date by which the country might try to stabilize its emissions.

Was there any sign of a convergence between the two countries?

Both Hu and Obama offered generic language about the need for all nations to move together, but the basic stumbling blocks — who will move first, who will pay and what kind of commitments will be required — remained solidly in place.

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