OBAMA VISITS CHINA

President Obama is scheduled to make his first trip to China in November. He and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have said cooperation on climate change is a new top priority in United States-China relations. But the two countries have yet to take concrete steps together on any proposals. Some environmental advocates feel there is little prospect of concrete steps being taken at this time. New technology is critical to alleviating climate change to the two largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world that rely heavily on coal for their energy needs. Those countries are unlikely to move away from this reliance on coal and other fossil fuels anytime soon. Advocates also say that any hope of a meaningful result emerging from the international climate change summit meeting to take place in December in Copenhagen might depend on whether the United States and China first demonstrate that they can reach agreements among themselves.