US president Barack Obama has urged world leaders to work together to counter the damaging effects of climate change in a speech at the United Nations. Speaking in apocalyptic terms, Mr Obama suggested climate change was "serious, urgent and growing". He added: "Security, stability, all people, our prosperity and our health are all in jeopardy… and time is running out."
China later announced significant carbon emissions cuts at the UN climate summit in New York. The country's president Hu Jintao detailed ambitious plans that could make China one of the leading nations in tackling climate change.
The UN climate chief Yvo De Boer had already said the plan was "so ambitious that it could well become the frontrunner in the fight to address climate change". The measures include plans to cut vehicle pollution, the closure of some power stations and more renewable sources of power.
China is currently the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and has come under considerable pressure from the developed world to drastically cut emissions. Mr Obama told delegates on Tuesday a global commitment was needed to counter climate change, regardless of what difficulties nations may be facing due to the global recession.
Failure to do so, he warned, would lead to "irreversible catastrophe". Environment ministers from around the world, including secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband, are meeting in New York this week to discuss plans to tackle climate change.
On Monday Gordon Brown pledged to personally attend the Copenhagen climate talks in December in a bid to break the current deadlock and agree on a framework for tackling climate change after 2012 when the current Kyoto protocol expires.
