LITTLE ROCK — President Barack Obama told the United Nations that efforts to reach a global accord on climate change will face "doubts and difficulties" in an economy struggling to emerge from a recession.
"There should be no illusions that the hardest part of our journey is in front of us," Obama said Tuesday at a U.N. conference on efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. "We seek sweeping but necessary change in the midst of a global recession, where every nation's most immediate priority is reviving their economy and putting their people back to work."
Obama and China's President Hu Jintao, leaders of the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters, spoke at the U.N. meeting as about 190 nations face a deadline to craft a new climate-change accord in time for a meeting in December in Copenhagen, Denmark. Obama said the richest nations must lead the push and the fast-growing countries such as China must step up their efforts.
"We cannot meet this challenge unless all the largest emitters of greenhouse gas pollution act together," Obama said. "There is no other way."
Industrialized nations such as the U.S. and developing countries led by China are deadlocked on matters such as how much rich nations should help poor ones deal with climate change and how much industrialized nations should cut emissions.
"Yes, the developed nations that caused much of thedamage to our climate over the last century still have a responsibility to lead, and that includes the United States," Obama said. "But those rapidly growing nations that will produce nearly all the growth in global carbon emissions in the decade ahead must do their part as well."
The president said he would work at the Group of 20 conference in Pittsburgh later this week on proposals to "phase out fossil-fuel subsidies" as part of the battle against climate change.
The U.S. said this week that it will for the first time begin tracking how much greenhouse gas pollution is being emitted throughout the country. The Environmental Protection Agency was to sign the new rule Tuesday, Carol Browner, the White House's top energy and environmental adviser, said in New York.
Obama recounted his administration's efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, including development of clean-coal technology, steps to increase the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks and legislation to create a proposed capand-trade system for pollution allowances. While that measure passed the House, the Senate has yet to act.
Hu, whose government has rejected calls to accept overall limits on greenhouse gas emissions, said Tuesday for the first time that China will reduce the so-called carbon intensity of its economy. That requires cutting the amount of carbon dioxide produced for every increment of gross domestic product.
"We will endeavor to cut carbon-dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 level," Hu said, without naming a specific goal. "Out of a sense of responsibility to its own people and people across the world, China has taken and will continue to take determined and practical steps to tackle this challenge."
Unlike the U.S. and many other parties involved in climate talks, Hu runs a command economy and was unencumbered by political opposition. He outlined an ambitious program that included plans to plant enough forest to cover about 150,000 square miles - an area the size of Montana - and generate 15 percent of China's energy needs from renewable sources within a decade.
"At stake in the f ight against climate change are the common interests of the entire world," Hu said.
Still, China and other developing nations "should not ... be asked to take on obligations that go beyond their development stage," Hu said.
China and India, the world's fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, both want to link emissions to their growth in gross domestic product, meaning they still may increase emissions even if they take fundamental steps to curb them in the long run.
The U.S. and China are under pressure to reach agreement before the Copenhagen meeting on key issues holding up the talks to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set emissions limits on industrialized countries and expires in 2012. Neither the U.S. nor China is part of that agreement.
China and the U.S. each account for about 20 percent of all the world's greenhouse gas pollution, created when coal, natural gas or oil are burned. The European Union is next, generating 14 percent, followed by Russia and India, which each account for 5 percent.
Failing to act on pollution contributing to global warming risks "consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe," Obama said.
"We seek an agreement that will allow all nations to grow and raise living standards without endangering the planet," he said.
The European Union says binding targets are needed to keep the increase in global temperatures to within 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit of preindustrial times, a target that is said to avert the worst effects of climate change.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who oversaw Tuesday's climate meeting of about 100 world leaders, said talks for a new emissions limiting treaty are moving too slowly.
"The climate negotiations are proceeding at glacial speed. The world's glaciers are now melting faster than human progress to protect them - and us," the U.N. chief said.
Failure to reach a new international pact on climate change "would be morally inexcusable, economically shortsighted and politically unwise," Ban warned.
"I urge you to seal a deal in Copenhagen in December of this year," Ban said. "The science demands it, the world economy needs it."
Obama's top negotiator, Todd Stern, told reporters in New York on Tuesday that agreement on some provisions, including "significant" ones, may not be reached and may have to be resolved after the Copenhagen conference.
With 76 days to go before the pivotal Copenhagen conference, it appeared an interim agreement might be the most that could be expected in December, leaving difficult details for later talks.
"We are on the path to failure if we continue to act as we have," French President Nicolas Sarkozy cautioned.
Meanwhile, Japan's new prime minister is pledging a deep cut in greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.
Yukio Hatoyama told world leaders gathered Tuesday at a United Nations summit that his nation aims to make a 25 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020.
Hatoyama says Japan is also ready to contribute money and technical help for poorer countries to cut emissions. He is calling for a "fair and effective international framework" that allows all countries to make cuts.
Information for this article was contributed by Nicholas Johnston, Kate Andersen Brower and Roger Runningen of Bloomberg News and by John Heilprin and staff members of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1, 9 on 09/23/2009