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The article deals with an acknowledgment by the world's biggest government on their failure to reach a climate-change agreement during the United Nations conference on climate change in December 2009. The admission reflects the political challenges of negotiating a deal on climate change. According to leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, neither the U.S. nor China are ready to commit to such a deal.

The article discusses the announcement of Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso that the country will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions 15% to below 2005 levels by 2020. He mentioned that the plan might increase unemployment, lower the country's gross domestic product, and affect the financial status of Japanese households and industries. However, the plan was criticized for having only an 8% reduction below Japan's 1990 emission levels. Critics such as Greenpeace said that such percentage was far from what is required to stop climate change.