Copenhagen Summit - Promising Signs!

I have to admit to being a Copenhagen Summit pessimist. Although I've always thought that it was vitally important to achieve international agreement on some agressive target to curb global warming soonest, it has seemed increasingly likely lately that no such bold agreeement is on the cards. I thought Obama had a moral obligation to attend the summit, and for his administration to commit to the strongest deal they could get, but I was fairly unsurprised when I head that Obama would make a fairly low-key stop in Copenhagen in the first week of the Conference.

So imagine my pleasant surprise to learn that Obama has now rescheduled his Copenhagen trip to attend the end of the Summit, when 80 other world leaders will be present. Rumours are that this change of plans is a reaction to the better-than expected deals being struck with critical but hard to persuade big polluters such as China and India.

If he’s willing to stick his neck out like this, Obama must be pretty confident that he can get a deal. There have been signs of momentum for weeks now. The much-discussed deal with China was just one in a raft of commitments from the developing countries, including India and Brazil. Movement from the developing world has undercut one of U.S. conservatives’ principal arguments for inaction. Over 65 world leaders have pledged to attend.

Do we have a global consensus after all? Now THAT'S change I could believe in...