In this Washington Post article, the Cass Sunstein makes a very persuasive case for why we won’t see China or the US do anything about climate change until its too late. Basically China will soon move from #2 producer of carbons (we’re #1) to #1 and they can’t slow their economic growth by taking away the fuel that’s powering it including dirty coal plants, cars with no emission standards and their huge population.
The US, on the other hand, has the highest per capita usage by a mile and our economy is totally dependent on oil to the point where we might revert to a very different kind of place if it weren’t available (think medieval villages). Disturbing stuff.