Obama speaks Beijingese

Posted By Christina Larson Friday, December 18, 2009 - 12:46 PM Share

He came; he spoke ... he did not conquer. It's unclear how much impact Obama's speech (text here) at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this morning will have in nudging negotiators toward an agreement.

I found the most interesting line of his remarks this one:

Mitigation. Transparency. Financing. It's a clear formula -- one that embraces the principle of common but differentiated responses and respective capabilities"

Here he is picking up a favorite bit of Beijing's own rhetoric, the oft-repeated insistence on "common but differentiated responsibilities."

The original phrase derives from Kyoto, but it's been infused with so much meaning in Beijing -- basically meaning the rich countries should do more, and poor countries less for now -- that one could be forgiven for assuming it was as Chinese as fireworks.

Meantime, the full translated text of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's remarks are here.

And the FT has linked to a copy of a recent draft of potential agreement here.

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GOEDEL

4:31 PM ET

December 18, 2009

Obama: You cannot negoitiate with Motherr Nature!

Barack Obama, like most politicians, are science illiterate. They think that they are negotiating with China or with the undeveloped nations. How stupid!

The best scientists tell us that more than a 2F rise in temperature will be disastrous. The UN scientists say that even if all the promises are kept, the rise will be above 2F. We can expect, on that basis, coastal cities to be flooded. Given that we now have between 6 and 7 billion people on the planet, we may expect hundreds of millions, perhaps more, to die of starvation and disease from the rise of sea levels, droughts and consequent food shortages.

You can't fool Mother Nature, Obama!

BOBCHEN

1:34 PM ET

December 21, 2009

I guess

You think that negotiating with developing nations is a joke? I guess you are advocating throwing the futures and economic welfare of the world's bottom five billion to save the world. The ends justify the means. These poor third-worlders are going to suffer anyways from climate change, so why not make their sacrifice meaningful?

Right?

......

RIGHT?

DENEME456

2:25 AM ET

December 19, 2009

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JCBROWN

2:27 AM ET

January 27, 2010

Obama loves to make speeches

Obama loves to make speeches which impress the crowds who listen to it. Its often the duty of the person speaking to keep the crowd engaged in his speech and for that many people try different techniques while speaking. But what the idea behind the speech there was good. The remarks made that the rich countries should do more is true because world over poor countries often follow the rich countries. So they should set an example as to about how well they can create a good climate to the world. Obama should take more steps with China for a better and brighter future to the world. Predictive Dialer Precision Machining Security Systems VM Ware

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