The Obama administration was able to bring China and India to the table for Climate talks in Copenhagen.  A main Republican talking point has been that the U.S. should not commit to any climate change treaties or legislation if China and India were not involved, but since China and India are amount those attending the talked in Copehagen that has silenced this line of attack from conservatives.  Conservatives are now falling back to their default arguments that climate change is a hoax, that it’s cyclical and not caused by humans, or if it is caused by humans that it’s not important enough to act on through legislation or treaties.  Fortunately, for those in Copenhagen science has also debunked those claims as well.

China seemed to pull out of talks earlier only to get back to negotiating.  China is attempting to get different measuring standards for their own emissions since they are still growing their economy at a rapid rate.  If they settled on emissions below 1995 levels, then they would need to considerably slow their economic growth or rapidly develop cleaner technologies to meet those standards.  Developing countries are also pushing for more funds to help their countries combat climate change that is currently being caused from the pollution of the wealthier countries that are already developed and have a steady economic growth rate.  The Obama administration said that any funding for developing nations hinges on China and India agreeing to emission monitoring.  It’s been reported by Reuters that the latest deal requires an 80 percent reduction of global emissions by 2050, but developing nations in Africa want verifiable earlier targets that need to be met.