Summit Conferences

Something is rotting in the state of Denmark. Lots of things, actually, and it's a bit of an embarrassment for this Scandinavian nation as it prepares to host a widely anticipated global environmental summit this week. Denmark is proud of its image as one of the greenest countries in the world; it's probably why it was chosen as the site of the 15th United Nations Conference on Climate Change. But beneath the gloss lurk some inconvenient truths, including the fact that, pound for pound, Denmark produces more trash per capita than any other country in the 27-member European Union.

Matthew Hwa is fed up with the perception that today's young people are only interested in the latest iPhone application and the collection of friends on their Facebook pages. The 16-year-old high school student is taking a hard look at the state of politics in California and is not liking what he sees. "The politicians," Matthew said, "are going to have to compromise more, ignore what's on their personal agenda and do what's best for the state. They're also going to have to listen up a little bit. We are the next generation of leaders, and we have a voice."

There was good news and bad news Saturday as the leaders of Southeast Asia's 10 countries concluded their annual two-day summit amid signs of China's growing regional influence and a shared desire to speed the pace of e-commerce and information technology. The good news was that the gloom of the 1997-98 economic crisis had lifted. Though stock markets and currencies are down, most states have rebuilt their foreign-exchange reserves and are enjoying plump current-account surpluses.

As they prepared for a summit on nuclear security starting Monday in Washington, Obama administration officials were quietly crafting a common position for world powers that remain sharply divided on the best way to safeguard bomb-making materials. The two-day summit is being billed by the White House as the biggest conference of its type in the U.S. since the 1945 conference to create the United Nations. The arrival of leaders of more than 40 countries, including President Hu Jintao of China and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, is expected to snarl traffic and attract demonstrations.

First came the dilemma about air conditioning. Would having artificially cooled air offend delegates to the environmental summit here? The table for the heads of state produced another headache. Specifically, how do you build one large enough to seat 119 world leaders? For Flavio Perri, a Brazilian official in charge of summit logistics, organizing the huge conference without offending environmental principles or diplomatic protocol has posed what he refers to as "my difficulties."

For President Vladimir V. Putin, being host of the Group of 8 industrialized nations this weekend should have been a dream come true. But Western concerns about limits on democracy here, along with differences over how to rein in the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea and ensure the world's "energy security," mean this gathering will not be quite the coming-out party for a confident new Russia that it might have been. "This summit on Russia's territory ...

Iraq must yield to the "supervised destruction" of its chemical weapons and pledge some portion of its future oil revenues to pay for the destruction of Kuwait as part of any permanent peace agreement to end the Persian Gulf War, President Bush and British Prime Minister John Major agreed Saturday.

When President Clinton arrived here Tuesday for his swan-song summit with world leaders, he stepped into a tiny, surreal kingdom where unbelievable wealth blends with rigid repression. Brunei also represents the 21st century challenges confronting the 21 heads of state and leaders in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group as they push to strengthen regional economies and open up some of the world's last closed societies.

A handclasp and a walk in the woods in Geneva. Frigid stares and tight lips in the blustery cold of Reykjavik. The signing in Washington of a historic treaty on medium-range nuclear weapons. And now in Moscow, a walk through the heart of the "evil empire." The moods and images of the four summits of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev have differed in ways both subtle and striking.

President Reagan, who less than two years ago signed the most expensive farm aid bill in history, called Friday for the elimination of agricultural subsidies worldwide by the year 2000 as a way of promoting better world economic health.

The healthcare summit that convenes Thursday in Washington has emerged as a high-stakes gambit for President Obama and opposing Republican lawmakers, carrying risks for both sides that could not only alter the outcome of the healthcare debate but also November's midterm elections. By this point in the calendar, the White House had thought its healthcare overhaul would be completed, allowing Obama to swivel to the near 10% unemployment rate that has Americans so unnerved. Republicans had hoped the plan would be dead -- a casualty of the Democrats' loss last month of the 60-vote Senate margin needed to end filibusters.

President Obama's new healthcare overhaul plan would give the federal government greater authority to stop rate increases imposed by health insurers, an administration official said late Sunday. The proposal, to be posted on the White House website Monday, would give the Health and Human Services secretary power to block premium increases that were deemed excessive. It also would set up a panel of experts charged with evaluating the healthcare market each year and determining what would constitute a reasonable rate increase.

Leaders of the world's largest economies agreed late Friday to an accord on steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a deal hailed by President Obama as an "unprecedented breakthrough" in international negotiations but denounced by critics as too weak to avert the harshest effects of global warming. The agreement is not legally binding. But it would set the first emission limits for emerging powers India and China, along with new reduction targets for the United States, which never adopted the commitments of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Key concessions from the United States and China jolted climate negotiations Thursday in Copenhagen, providing optimism a day before President Obama joins other world leaders seeking a new international agreement on controlling greenhouse gases. But success hinged on two issues that have vexed diplomats throughout the two-week summit: an agreement between America and China on how to ensure that fast-developing nations follow through with their pledges to limit emissions; and whether poor nations will accept smaller emission cuts than they would like from wealthy countries in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in financial assistance.

Signaling a breakthrough on a key climate change issue, the United States and five other nations Wednesday pledged $3.5 billion over three years to preserve the world's forests. "Protecting the world's tropical rain forest is not a luxury, it is a necessity," Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack said, noting that deforestation accounts for 17% of humanity's emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The U.S. said it would contribute $1 billion through 2012. As a comprehensive agreement in Copenhagen remains elusive, negotiators this week nonetheless reached a tentative consensus on rules to preserve forests, including verification measures, the need to protect biodiversity, and the recognition of indigenous peoples' rights.

As negotiations for a global climate change convention entered their final stages in Copenhagen, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sat down with Times Foreign Editor Bruce Wallace to discuss the prospects for a deal, and whether rich nations are looking to curb the United Nations' role in overseeing the billions of dollars that may be transferred from the developed to the developing world. Ban said he expected to see a final, legally binding agreement signed by the middle of next year.

Rebuffing criticism of the warm greetings he exchanged with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, President Obama said Sunday that the United States, with its overwhelming military superiority and need to improve its global image, could afford to extend such diplomatic "courtesy." In a news conference capping a three-day meeting of leaders from the Western Hemisphere, Obama also said the U.S. must engage other countries through humanitarian gestures, not only military intervention.

Leaders of the world's largest economies agreed late Friday to an accord on steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a deal hailed by President Obama as an "unprecedented breakthrough" in international negotiations but denounced by critics as too weak to avert the harshest effects of global warming. The agreement is not legally binding. But it would set the first emission limits for emerging powers India and China, along with new reduction targets for the United States, which never adopted the commitments of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The world's poorest and fastest-growing developing nations appear, increasingly, to hold the fate of a new climate agreement in their hands. The choice they face is, deal or no deal? As the Copenhagen climate summit barreled into its penultimate phase Tuesday, wealthy countries ramped up pressure on emerging economies China and India, as well as African and island nations, to compromise and drop near-daily procedural tactics and protests that have slowed the negotiations. Rich nations still hold some bargaining chips, chiefly how much money they're willing to commit to help developing countries adapt to climate change and shift their energy sources over the long term.

Jake Mackenzie, a city councilman from Rohnert Park, Calif., is looking forward to telling the world about Sonoma County's efforts to combat climate change -- he even has an appointment with a Scottish official to talk about harnessing energy from waves. So what if a few local critics have raised eyebrows about the $22,500 cost of sending a seven-person delegation from Sonoma County to Copenhagen? "Our message is, 'Hey U.N., we deserve a place at the table,' " Mackenzie said.