Climate Change to Take Center Stage at U.N. Talks

By STEPHEN POWER and IAN TALLEY
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama promised strong action on climate change from his first day in office, but he is heading into a series of meetings with other world leaders this month under growing pressure to deliver on his rhetoric.
More than 100 world leaders, including Mr. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, are scheduled to meet Tuesday at the 64th United Nations General Assembly to talk about fighting climate change, in a prelude to the Pittsburgh Group of 20 meetings starting Thursday.
Also on the Agenda, Missiles and the Middle East
The United Nations General Assembly comes at a pivotal time for big issues on its agenda, including climate-change rules and Mideast negotiations. It is also notable for a number of potentially awkward encounters among leaders embroiled in their own controversies.
President Barack Obama hosts lunch for sub-Saharan African leaders, focusing on how the U.S. can work with Africa on job creation, boosting trade and mobilizing agriculture.
Mr. Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas amid stalled progress on Mideast peace talks.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Mr. Obama meet, amid disagreements on trade issues and over possible new sanctions on Iran.
Wednesday Sept. 23

Turmoil surrounds Libya's Col. Moammar Gadhafi, who is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Wednesday.
President Obama addresses assembly for the first time, crossing paths with the next speaker, Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi. The U.S. recently excoriated Libya over its jubilant reception for the released Lockerbie bomber. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, under fire after Scotland's decision to release the bomber, is also scheduled to speak.
Among the heavy roster of leaders speaking at the assembly are Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who faces controversy at home over allegations about his private life, and Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a June coup. Also on the list is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as unrest over his recent election continues.
Mr. Obama meets with new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose election marked a sea change in the country's political leadership.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Mr. Obama meet, close on the heels of the U.S. decision to scrap plans for long-range missile interceptors in Europe.
The Obamas host an evening reception for world leaders at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
Thursday Sept. 24

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, above, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are to attend a meeting of the "quartet" of Mideast mediators on Thursday.
Mr. Obama leads a Security Council meeting on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. A U.S. council resolution makes no overt mention of North Korea or Iran. Among those at the table: the U.K.'s Mr. Brown and Libya's Col. Gadhafi.
Two-day conference begins on a comprehensive ban of nuclear testing, aimed at making progress on a treaty already adopted by the U.N. General Assembly and ready for signature since 1996.
U.N. Secretary–General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the European Union's foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov—representing the 'quartet' of international mediators on the Middle East—meet.
Second annual Friends of Pakistan summit, hosted by Mr. Obama, Mr. Brown and Pakistan's While the talk will be about the environment, the substance will be about money. Poor nations say that if rich nations want them to stop burning coal or cutting down forests, they should be willing to pay.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made global warming a focus, and he is worried that the meeting won't move the ball forward toward a new global climate-change treaty in Copenhagen this December to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
"We want world leaders to show they understand the gravity of climate risks, as well as the benefits of acting now," Mr. Ban said. "We want them to publicly commit to sealing a deal in Copenhagen."
While he said Tuesday's closed-door meeting was "not a negotiation forum," Mr. Ban said he expected the leaders to "to give their negotiating teams marching orders to accelerate progress toward an...ambitious global climate agreement."
China has proposed that developed nations contribute 1% of gross domestic product to subsidize efforts by poorer nations to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. That translates to more than $140 billion for the U.S. alone. U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern says the Chinese proposal is "untethered from reality."
Separately, China is trying to establish a voluntary market to encourage companies and individuals to reduce emissions. China Beijing Environment Exchange is scheduled to launch the country's first voluntary carbon standard in New York on Wednesday.
Mr. Obama's administration has begun to act on its own to cut emissions. Last week, the administration rolled out details of its strategy to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from cars. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said the proposal paves the way for regulating emissions from other sources, such as power plants.
But a broad proposal to limit U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions is bogged down in the Senate, with Republicans solidly opposed and Democrats divided. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), said earlier this month that the Senate might delay a vote on climate legislation until next year. A spokesman for Mr. Reid later clarified that the measure could still come to the floor by year end.
Mr. Reid's wavering added to the frustration among countries that had hoped for major progress toward a new global climate deal at the Copenhagen summit.
"Is the U.S. Senate really expecting all the other countries to make a serious effort on climate change at the Copenhagen Conference in the absence of a clear commitment from the United States?" John Bruton, the European Union's ambassador to the U.S., said in a written statement last Thursday. "Asking an international Conference to sit around looking out the window for months, while one chamber of the legislature of one country deals with its other business, is simply not a realistic political position."
Republicans say whatever deal the Obama administration cuts in Copenhagen will likely be dead on arrival in Washington. The gaps between developed and developing nations' demands, they say, are too wide to be bridged.
Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the top Republican on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, predicts "a repeat of Kyoto -- namely an environmentally ineffective agreement that cannot be ratified" by the Senate.
Not everyone is gloomy about the prospects for a deal in Copenhagen. Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's climate and energy minister, says she sees hope in the fact that Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, recently pledged that his country will seek to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 -- a much bigger cut than the 8% goal set by former Prime Minister Taro Aso.
Still, big differences remain between the U.S. and Europe on fundamental issues, including how quickly rich countries should have to cut their emissions over the next decade or so. While the European Union has pledged to cut its emissions by at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 -- and to increase that reduction to 30% if other major emitters do the same -- the most aggressive proposal in Congress to curb U.S. emissions calls for a 4% reduction beneath 1990 levels by 2020.—Joe Lauria and Carolyn Cui contributed to this article.