New climate promises from the U.S. and China

President Obama and President Hu Jintao pledged this week to cut emissions to help the world slow the pace of global warming. 

What happened

Laying the groundwork for an upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen, the leaders of the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters pledged this week to cut emissions to help the world slow the pace of global warming. But neither President Obama nor President Hu Jintao of China made any specific, numerical commitments, or explained how they’d reduce emissions. Obama told other world leaders at a special U.N. conference on climate change in New York that the U.S. had entered a “new era” in confronting global warming, but with controversial cap-and-trade climate legislation on hold in the Senate, he kept his rhetoric vague. Hu announced that China would reduce the amount of carbon produced per unit of economic output by “a notable margin” over the next decade. Given China’s rapid growth, that approach means that its total emissions will rise even if its carbon intensity declines. Together, U.S. and China produce 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases.

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