The Battle Ahead: Climate Change After Copenhagen

Open Society Fellow Mark Hertsgaard and Nancy Youman, deputy director of OSI U.S. Programs, recently returned from the climate change summit held in Copenhagen in December.  During this discussion, they share their eyewitness observations of the summit and assess the real-world implications of the summit's failure to establish ambitious goals for reducing carbon emissions.

Hertsgaard and Youman describe the high-stakes test of wills between China and the Obama administration that played out at Copenhagen—with profound consequences for the planet—as well as how environmental groups are already preparing themselves for the next round of confrontations and how activists and philanthropies should respond to post-summit realities.