Chinese plan upstages Obama at U.N.

NEW YORK | President Obama warned world leaders of an “irreversible catastrophe” if they fail to address climate change in time, but it was China’s leader who upstaged his American counterpart Tuesday by presenting the most detailed proposal.

Chinese President Hu Jintao unveiled an ambitious plan that included planting enough trees to cover an area the size of Norway, expanding China’s use of nuclear energy and pledging to generate 15 percent of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources within a decade. Mr. Obama’s energy reform package remains stalled behind two other major domestic initiatives in Congress.

“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,” Mr. Hu told a special U.N. summit on climate change.

The offer from China - one of the world’s largest polluters - included a promise to make a notable reduction to the growth rate of its carbon pollution as measured against economic growth, among other efforts. However, Mr. Hu cautioned that developing nations should not be asked to shoulder more than they can bear in the battle against climate change.

Todd Stern, Mr. Obama’s special envoy for climate change, said the Chinese plan sounded good but the significance of the final reductions remains to be seen.

Chinese leaders will be able to implement their proposal even as the Obama administration struggles to win congressional approval for the comparable U.S. program.

Leading environmentalists welcomed the offer by China, which has been criticized for rising pollution levels as its economy booms.

Former Vice President Al Gore hailed Mr. Hu’s proposal.

“I think the glass is very much half-full with China,” Mr. Gore said.

Mr. Obama’s speech on climate change kicked off a long day in New York navigating different elements of a complex diplomatic agenda that includes Middle East peace, nonproliferation and global development.

Although Mr. Obama’s speech was received politely, even enthusiastically in some quarters, observers said Mr. Obama’s first U.N. summit as president was unlikely to yield major policy accomplishments.

Perhaps the most poignant evidence of this was Mr. Obama’s photo session with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, which produced the familiar image of a trilateral handshake that has become, in its various incarnations, a potent symbol of diplomatic talk without tangible progress over the decades.

Mr. Obama gets a second chance to sway world leaders Wednesday when he addresses the opening day of the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly, but diplomatic expectations are again not high.

“I don’t expect him to emerge with any startling initiatives. I don’t think we’ll see a big breakthrough on the Middle East. I don’t think the Iranian or North Korean threats will go away,” said Edward Luck, director of the Center on International Organization at Columbia University.

Mr. Luck said Mr. Obama’s New York trip would prove more valuable for the personal interactions he has with other foreign leaders such as Mr. Hu, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the heads of Middle Eastern and African states.

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