COP 15

The White House announced that President Obama has changed his travel plans for Copenhagen.  Rather than stoping by Copenhagen en route to picking up his Nobel Prize on December 9th, the President will attend the very last day of the conference, December 18th.  This is good news.  As one close observor writes via email,

"By switching his visit from Dec. 9 to Dec. 18, Obama appears to be betting that his presence can - as he has expressed hope for several times in the past - push the negotiations "over the top" toward an agreement."

A week ago, the United States committed to a mid-term 17-percent emissions reduction pledge at the upcoming Copenhagen climate talks. The next day, China followed suit, promising to cut its carbon intensity by at least 40 percent by 2020. Now it's India's turn.

Having scaled back their ambitions for next month's Copenhagen climate conference, world leaders are working to salvage the effort, and some are optimistic about the prospects for a meaningful step toward a legally binding international climate treaty.

By Josh Nelson

As the clock ticks down to next month's Copenhagen climate conference, environmental activists have their eyes on key world leaders whose decisions on whether to attend the conference could make or break the prospects for a binding international treaty. This week, two of those leaders have provided insights into their intentions.

The top UN climate negotiator Yvo de Boer lays out his four criteria that would make up a "strong political agreement" at Copenhagen.  Watch. 

At yesterday's House Committee on Foreign Affairs, UN Foundation head Sen. Tim Wirth* proposed creating a new high-level position in the State Department "to manage U.S.-China bilateral cooperation on a new model of sustainable growth based on increasing the use of clean energy." 

By Aaron Wiener

U.N. climate change talks in Barcelona have gotten off to a rocky start, with around 50 African nations boycotting meetings in protest of the low emissions reduction targets set by the world's developed countries.