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"Don't expect miracles"

But Washington is also warning that the world cannot expect miracles.
A bill put before Congress would cut U.S. emissions by 17% by 2020 over 2005 levels using a cap-and-trade system of the kind Bush loathed.

This approach would translate to a reduction of only 4% compared to the 1990 benchmark, but it would also ratchet up to 83% by 2050, the top U.S. climate change negotiator, Todd Stern, said in Paris last week.

"We are jumping as high as the political system will tolerate," said Stern, characterising China's demand of a 40% by 2020 as "not realistic".

Just as unresolved is what the emerging giant countries should do. China is now the world's No. 1 polluter, and Brazil and India have also leapt up the emission ranks as their economies have grown.

Yet all refuse binding emissions targets of the kind that apply only to rich countries under the Kyoto Protocol, the UNFCCC treaty to be superceded from 2013 by the Copenhagen accord.