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Scaling the Climate Summit: Reaching a Deal This December Will Be a Major Climb

The European Union has declared as one of its main policy objectives for 2009 the signing of a global treaty on climate change. In December, a summit to address the issue will be held in Copenhagen under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A leader in addressing climate change, the EU confirmed its intention to unilaterally reduce emissions with its Climate and Energy Package in December 2008. Combined with the Obama Administration’s promise to cooperatively tackle the issue of climate change and publicly-made commitments by major developing nations (see Brazil’s national plan, for example), this made the challenging task of reaching a global deal seem less daunting.