Little action expected at climate summit

WASHINGTON - New York City will be full of planet-saving pomp this week, but short on action to rescue the world.

More than 120 world leaders convene Tuesday for a U.N. summit aimed at galvanizing political will for a new global climate treaty by the end of 2015.

Environmentalists will take to the streets Sunday in what is being billed as the largest march ever on global warming. Celebrities, CEOs, and climatologists will appear at a string of events as part of New York's annual climate week. Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio will talk about what causes rising seas.

The hope is to recapture the momentum lost after the disappointing 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen, when world leaders left without a binding treaty.

The one-day U.N. summit, while not part of the formal negotiation process, is the pinnacle of the seven-year-old tenure of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has made fighting climate change his rallying cry and traveled the globe to invite world leaders to the gathering. Saying he was "humbled by the overwhelming response," Ban urged leaders to come with bold ideas.

Yet whatever happens at the summit is unlikely to approach a goal set in Copenhagen: Preventing Earth's temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit from where it is now.

"Our expectation is this is a political event," said Zou Ji, deputy director of China's National Center for Climate Change Strategy.

Rather than firm commitments from closed-door negotiations, the summit is expected to jumpstart a series of much publicized initiatives and partnerships.