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September is going to be a busy month for climate change. On the 28th, the United States Senate will be asked to sign-on to the House approved Waxman-Markey bill to cap and reduce global warming pollution and cut U.S. imports of foreign oil. But the climate change debate--and whether other countries will commit to the massive global agenda--is still unknown. After all, how can the world possibly agree to re-direct its economy towards green growth?

A press conference organized this week by the Global campaign for Climate Action and Tck Tck Tck (an alliance that brings NGO's, faith groups, and trade unions together on climate), surveyed expert opinions on the upcoming month, where several significant international gatherings will take place in the United States and are designed specifically to increase pressure on world leaders to sign an ambitious and binding agreement at the international climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009. A September 22nd summit organized by the UN's Secretary-General will seek to lobby member-states to sign on to the organization's multi-tiered global warming reduction agenda.

Yet, there here have been a series of failures leading up to the UN Summit and Copenhagen. Many developing countries favor a single, all inclusive agreement (a new Copenhagen over the stale Kyoto protocol), and others recognize the costs associated with tackling climate change. More importantly, governments simply cannot agree on how developing countries will set emission reduction targets. Many developing countries want the targets set first by developed countries. And more specifically, bilateral negotiations with major polluters, namely the United States and China, are not likely to garner the political will necessary to resolve current emission practices.

"I have no intention of playing a game. We are not looking at ways to gloss over this issue. We need to move forward." said a hopeful UN Ambassador of Denmark, Carsten Staur, the host of the international climate change negotiations in December.

The breakdown in talks at the G-8 held in Italy this summer, also left many countries wondering whether the climate agenda would ever be adopted. Skeptics added that a global treaty to help cut carbon emissions to levels that will prevent dangerous rises in global temperatures could not possible exist as long as the U.S. and Australia rejected Kyoto arguing that economic competitors like China and India get by without restrictions. And although industrialized nations pledged to limit global climate change to 2 degrees, developing nations felt the G8 should not be leading the world climate agenda and the current strategy did not sufficiently focus on cooperation between rich and poor states--forcing developing economies into the sidelines in Copenhagen.

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) said at a stalled climate meeting in Bonn this summer, "If we keep moving forward at this pace, we may not make it in time at Copenhagen."

"There is a lag between reality and action. Copenhagen may be an illusion of action with no action" said Alden Meyer, Vice Chair of the Tck Tck Tck campaign.

The climate bill in the United States (American Clean Energy and Security Act), would force U.S. industries to comply with tougher regulations and monitoring to mitigate global warming. Many lawmakers are against the climate bill, which they say could bring up higher energy prices to consumers. Under the House-passed bill, U.S. carbon emissions would have to drop by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels.

"There has been a delay in this process partly due to the ongoing health care debate, which has greatly slowed down this climate agenda," said Michael Allegretti, Senior Advisor on US Policy for the Climate Group which will host Climate Week in New York beginning September 21.

If the House had not approved the Waxman-Markey bill, there is great consensus the United States would not have been able to contribute to international climate change negotiations in Denmark in December.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer and other democrats are leading the process and are hopeful the meeting in September will advance the climate change agenda in the US, a few months ahead of the global COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen from December 7-18 2009.

By promoting alternative "green" energy like solar and wind power to replace coal and oil, the Waxman-Markey bill would dramatically shift energy production in the United States.