Just two weeks before the the start of the international climate meetings in Copenhagen, both the US and China have set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  President Obama pledged a provisional target, the first time that the U.S. has offered even a tentative promise on Wednesday.  Obama made a commitment to cut emissions by 17% of 2005 levels.

Today, the Chinese government announced that it had set a target to reduce "carbon intensity" by 40-45 % of 2005 levels. 

President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao had talked about climate change and what their two nations could do to spur on the discussions at Copenhagen when the two met in Beijing on November 16th.  Both leaders have now said they will attend the meetings in Copenhagen.

An article in the NYT states that Obama's commitment on behalf of the US is a bit disappointing to the European Commission.  That target is about what the yet-to-be-passed Waxman-Markey Climate Change bill has set rather than something greater.  In addition, Obama did not pledge support for developing countries to help them address the impacts of climate change. 

China's emissions are of great concern as the world considers how to bring down the perilous levels of GHG emitted into the atmosphere because it passed the US two years ago as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.  It is still building coal-fired power plants, which currently supply 4/5 of China's electricity.  In addition, though, China has also become the largest market for wind turbines, having doubled installations in each of the last four years, under heavy pressure by regulators.