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Obama attended the U.N. climate summit, and this week the Senate environment committee will take up its version of a global warming bill which would cut greenhouse gases by about 80 percent by 2050 and require more domestic energy to come from renewable sources. But with work still to be done on health care and deep divisions in Congress over how to deal with climate change, chances the Senate will pass a climate bill by the end of the year are slim. Ban said he plans to meet with Senate leaders to encourage passage of the climate bill. By doing so, the Senate "can have a huge political impact for other negotiators of other counties," Ban said. Many developing countries, such as China and India, "are ready to make some political compromises only if and only when the United States is ready to do that."
Pasztor said a U.S. climate bill is very important because without one, U.S. negotiators in Copenhagen can't negotiate on targets for emissions reductions. He said two key unresolved issues are agreement on emission reduction targets for industrialized countries and how to finance actions by developing countries to limit their emissions growth and adapt to the effects of climate change. Developed countries want to provide money for specific actions to curb emissions
-- but developing countries say the actions depend on how much money they're going to get, Pasztor said, and that still hasn't been decided.
[Associated
Press;
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