The New York Times reports that “President Obama, emboldened by his use of executive powers to fight climate change at home, challenged China on Tuesday to make the same effort to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and join a worldwide campaign to curb global warming.”  

“Declaring that the United States and China — the world’s two largest economies and largest polluters — bear a ‘special responsibility to lead,’ Mr. Obama said, ‘That’s what big nations have to do.’”  

“The president’s remarks at the United Nations Climate Summit, delivered in a packed chamber of the General Assembly, were broadly aimed at marshaling more than 100 world leaders to confront climate change. But his words were directly focused on putting the onus on China, an essential partner of the United States if a global climate treaty is to be negotiated by 2015.”