’No one said Copenhagen was going to be easy. After all, at its heart, the climate summit is about persuading nearly 200 nations to use drastically less of the fossil fuels that power the global economy.’

The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States gave hope that a legally binding climate agreement in Copenhagen would be produced. Unfortunately, ‘climate legislation is still pending before the U.S. Congress’ and that, in turn, ‘major developing nations are reluctant to agree to CO2 reductions while the world’s greatest cumulative emitter of greenhouse gases — the United States — makes no binding commitments.’

The standoff dims the success of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 or Copenhagen Climate Conference.

Some environmental leaders think and believe that much can still be accomplished from December 7-18, 2009 in Copenhagen ‘to smooth the way for a binding climate treaty in 2010. Above all, most of them say, the world’s industrialized nations must lead the way by setting targets for significant reductions in CO2 emissions and by committing funds to help the world’s developing nations adapt to global warming and invest in renewable energy technologies.’

Environmental experts are disappointed ‘with the Obama administration and Congress for failing to set tough emissions reduction targets.’ They, of course, acknowledge the fact that the successful move to reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rests significantly on the United States.

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Via environment360