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World leaders have gathered at the United Nations in New York for a summit on climate change. The World’s Alex Gallafent has details on today’s meeting.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman, and this is The World.  There have been plenty of climate change meetings over the years.  Today we saw the highest-level one so far.  Some 100 world leaders… including the presidents of the United States and China… gathered at the United Nations in New York. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called the meeting to jumpstart lagging negotiations for a new international climate treaty.  The World’s Alex Gallafent reports.

ALEX GALLAFENT: This morning, the chatter was all about China.  Would China’s President Hu Jintao present sweeping new energy policies?  Would he announce plans to make dramatic cuts in China’s carbon emissions?  But before the world got its answer, there was some dramatic preamble.

[MUSIC PLAYS WHILE THE VOICES BELOW SPEAK]

FEMALE VOICE: Show us leadership.

MALE VOICE: Are you ready to take the first step?  Because we are…

GALLAFENT: A group of young people delivered an emotional appeal to the assembled leaders.

FEMALE VOICE: You all know the solutions that have existed for decades.

GALLAFENT: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon piled on the moral pressure.

BAN KI-MOON: The fate of future generations and the hopes and livelihoods of billions today rest literally with you.

GALLAFENT: That’s how the scene was set for the first world leader to speak:  President Barack Obama.

BARACK OBAMA: For too many years, mankind has been slow to respond or even recognize the magnitude of the climate threat.  It is true of my own country as well.

GALLAFENT: After running through a list of climate-related policies his administration has enacted, the president acknowledged the difficulty of tackling climate change during a global recession.  Still, he said:

OBAMA: Each of us must do what we can when we can to grow our economies without endangering our planet, and we must all do it together.

GALLAFENT: What we can, when we can.  The “when” is key.  The culmination of the current international climate negotiations is a global summit scheduled for December. And the Obama team may be running out of time to get its domestic policies in shape for that meeting.  Healthcare has been dominating Washington recently.  The House of Representatives has passed a climate change bill. But it’s the Senate that’s lagging, says Kelly Sims Gallagher.  She’s a Climate Policy Specialist at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of International Affairs.

KELLY SIMS GALLAGHER: Without the advice and consent of the US Senate, which would be an equivalent climate change bill, Obama really can’t afford to go and negotiate internationally.  Because he runs the risk of coming home and not being able to ratify the treaty, which would be the Kyoto Protocol disaster all over again.

GALLAFENT: The 1997 Kyoto Protocol went down in flames in the Senate.  One of the criticisms then, as now, was that China and other large developing countries refused to make binding commitments to curb their booming carbon emissions.  That’s why there was a sense of anticipation before President Hu’s speech today.  He was expected to advance dramatically China’s position on climate change.  And he took to the UN podium with a speech full of promises.

HU JINTAO [VIA TRANSLATOR]: First, we will intensify our effort to conserve energy and improve energy efficiency. We will endeavor to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 level.

GALLAFENT: President Hu also pledged to plant massive new forests, and to push low-carbon energy sources.  He didn’t get into specific CO2 targets.  That makes sense, says Kelly Sims Gallagher.  The Chinese are positioning themselves for December’s climate summit.

GALLAGHER: …that they have done this work to understand how much they could possibly reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of their economy and that they’re ready to start negotiating.

GALLAFENT: For another leader at the UN today, those negotiations can’t come soon enough.  Sandwiched between the speeches of Presidents Obama and Hu were remarks by the President of the Republic of Maldives. The Maldives sit low in the Indian Ocean.  Rising sea levels threaten their very existence.  President Mohamed Nasheed said his country is often invited to climate change conferences.

MOHAMED NASHEED: On cue, we stand here and tell you just how bad things are…

GALLAFENT: Each time, he said, world leaders promise action.  And each time, he added, disappointment follows.

NASHEED: We in the Maldives currently want to believe that hat one day our words will have an effect.  And so, we continue to shout them.  Even though, deep down, we know that you’re not really listening.

GALLAFENT: He’ll find out in December whether the world’s listening this time. For The World, I’m Alex Gallafent.

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