China Expected to Take the Global Lead on Climate Change with Major UN Announcement Today

People take part in a mobile phone ‘Wake-up Call’ event at Parliament Square in London, Monday, Sept. 21, 2009. The campaigners on Monday used their mobile phones to call on Gordon Brown to attend the Copenhagen climate change summit this December. The event was one of more than 2,000 ‘Global Wake-up Call’ events happening worldwide on Monday, urging their leaders to re ignite stalled climate talks at the United Nations meeting on Tuesday Sept. 22. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)Both the BBC and AP are reporting that China is expected to make a major announcement today, vaulting it to “front-runner” status — far ahead of the Unived States — in taking on global warming.

China occupies a unique status, in terms of being a “developing” country that’s also “developed”. At a U.N. climate summit of 100 world leaders today, China is expected to “steal the show”, with an ambitious set of the goals that America barely dreams about taking on.

China has already leapfrogged the United States to become the world’s biggest wind power market, and is a growing force in solar power - and analysts say President Hu may advance the country’s renewable energy targets even further.

But the BBC correspondent in Beijing, Quentin Sommerville, says it is unlikely that the Chinese will agree to a cap on their carbon emissions. via BBC and AP