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ALTHOUGH THEIR speeches were lacking in specifics, both presidents Barack Obama and China’s Hu Jintao yesterday managed to inject some badly needed hope and political will into the tortuously slow climate change negotiations that are supposed to culminate in Copenhagen in December.

Yesterday’s UN special summit in New York heard Mr Hu for the first time pledge significant curbs on China’s emissions in the next decade, while Mr Obama renewed his country’s moral commitment to a successor agreement to the Kyoto climate change agreement. But on a key issue of difference with the EU, the scale of resources the rich will have to provide to the developing world to assist with climate change, he acknowledged a US obligation but failed to quantify it. Europe wants rich countries among the G20 to commit some $10 billion annually for the developing world as an advance payment towards reaching a climate deal this year.