Gotta love ‘em for trying- with the whole world and the media (and this blogger for sure) crying out about how something must be done (!) about climate change and how politicians and diplomats around the world are just arguing too much to make anything meaningful happen- all that while there are actually still people trying to make something happen- including somebodies like the U.S. and China.
Leaders from both countries gave speeches this week that gave some indication of what they are willing to do to cut emissions and what their version of a plan moving forward on climate change might be. Of course, Obama is shackled by the utter inability of our Congress to get their act together long enough to sit down in a room and commit to something that is good for the Earth- oh, wait, first they have to sit down and stop whining about being pressured into passing some kind of healthcare reform bill. Lots to do.

Five years ago, climate was a non-issue for China. Now they ... are saying 'we are going to do something now.' This is a tremendous shift. It was a bit disappointing that China did not give a number for greenhouse gas intensity. But this is progress,” said Knut Alfsen, head of research at the Center for International Climate and Energy Research in Oslo. [Note: I switched up the order of his printed quote but changed no words.]

Obama didn’t put specifics in his speech either- nobody is talking specifics yet, right now, or anytime before Copenhagen if you ask me.  

"It is really more of a step back than a step forward," said Thomas Henningsen, climate coordinator for Greenpeace International.

Now, Thomas, be nice.

Japan’s prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama pledged to offer more aid to developing countries (wait, isn’t Japan more broke than us?) and re-committed to Japan cutting emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2020.

The EU is now getting ancy about the U.S. They liked that Obama was in there and wants to do something about climate change- but, of course, there is that pesky bill in the Senate that, whoops, may not even get considered let alone voted on before the Copenhagen summit.
"We seek sweeping but necessary change in the midst of a global recession where every nation's most immediate priority is reviving their economy," said Obama.

Well, now we know that reviving our economy is the most immediate priority. I did not expect Obama to say this- did not expect him to lay out that as our top priority. Now I can see that he doesn’t care whether there is a bill through Congress, doesn’t care if the U.S. signs on to the Copenhagen summit agreement- and basically isn’t interested in being part of the United Nations’ push for global battle against climate change. Not that he doesn’t want to do anything, but I can see that his focus is on the U.S., that he will not push Congress to pass climate change legislation and is fine with the U.S. signing something after the summit. Then probably allowing the U.S. Congress to just see what they agree to at Copenhagen and we will base our agreement on what we think we can logically and/or reasonably agree to with that as the baseline for the rest of the world. Wow. Ok, good politics, Barack.