The outlook for the global summit on climate change to be held in Copenhagen in December is uncertain.

ECONOMIST: Climate change and the UN

In December 2009 Copenhagen in Danemark is hosting what has been called the most important global summit since World War II, the United Nations Climate Conference, COP15.

UNESCO: Communication and Information

Memories of the 1992 Rio summit, which produced important global agreements on combating climate change and protecting biodiversity, as well as the presence of so many world leaders, had also inflated expectations.

ECONOMIST: A limp agreement at the UN��s vaunted environmental summit

President Obama did attempt to give global leadership on the climate issue, by attending the UN's Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.

BBC: Climate change makes late surge in US elections

Timothy Wirth later became undersecretary of state for global affairs for the Clinton-Gore administration, U.S. representative to the 1992 UN Rio de Janeiro Climate Summit that set Kyoto Protocol carbon regulations in motion, and president of the UN Foundation.

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