“Environmental Leader” reports:

The top U.S. climate envoy is doubtful that any meaningful global agreement on climate change can be forged at December’s climate talks in Copenhagen.
Jonathan Pershing, the US deputy special envoy for climate change, said that the talks won’t fail, but they “will likely be inadequate,” reports Platts.com.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is more optimistic, however, Reuters reports. Lula de Silva was heartened by the increasing participation of the U.S., saying “The United States is assuming the responsibility to discuss this issue, something they haven’t done since the Kyoto Protocol was signed.”
Pershing’s comments came in front of the Committee on America’s Climate Choices, which Congress last year directed the National Academy of Science to convene. The committee is scheduled to release four reports this year and a final report sometime in 2010.
Instead of December’s meeting in Copenhagen, Pershing expects real components of climate change to come from 2010 meetings, likely to be held in Mexico. Recommendations from Copenhagen, however, should provide what Pershing called “real space for doing an agreement.”