Nations having different goals when it comes to Climate Change

They met up, talked and showed sympathy, leadership, motivation for action, and then when it's about time to announce their commitments to actually do something about Climate Change, few did!
 
Several world leaders on Tuesday gave the most decisive indication in months that they will work to revive floundering negotiations aimed at securing a new international climate pact. But the vision that President Obama and others outlined at the United Nations climate summit -- in which countries offered a series of individual commitments -- suggests that a potential deal may look much different from what its backers originally envisioned.

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The sad thing about climate change is that those who least caused it will be most affected by it, such as the Maldives, and this is what their President Mohamed Nasheed a prime speaking spot after Obama, said about it:
 
"On cue, we stand here and tell you just how bad things are. We warn you that unless you act quickly and decisively, our homelands and others like it will disappear beneath the rising sea before the end of the century," he said. "In response, the assembled leaders of the world stand up one by one and rail against the injustice of it all. . . . But then, once the rhetoric has settled and the delegates have drifted away, the sympathy fades, and the indignation cools, and the world carries on as before."

The most ambitious commitment to reduce the gas emissions in their country came from Japan:

Japan's prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, renewed his pledge to reduce his country's emissions by 25 percent by 2020.

However, they won't play if others don't play, especially that if they played alone, it will not help the case anyway

Japan's commitment is conditioned on the willingness of other industrial powers to sign on to similar commitments.

The major problem in actually coming up with a fair and binding agreement for climate change is that most countries have had one of their worst economic years and initially they're always reluctant in taking any measures when it comes to environment and climate change, so how about now with a vulnerable economy starring them in the face.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/22/AR2009092201137.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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