The United Nations is hosting a climate change meeting in New York this week to help pave the way for the December Copenhagen summit.

European ministers, however, are lowering expectations on reaching a comprehensive greenhouse gas reducing treaty.

According the Financial Times, “European Union officials have grown increasingly frustrated at the U.S. stance, saying it has fallen short on both its level of ambition to reduce emissions and on offering aid to developingnations.”

To the EU, it appears that the Obama Administration is so totally immersed in health care issues that the upcoming climate change meeting is getting little attention.

While the U.S. House passed cap and trade legislation this past June, Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, remarked last week that the Senate would most likely not take up the cap and trade bill until next year. The EU ambassador to the U.S., John Bruton, expressed frustration with the Senate’s slowness, stating in the Financial Times, “There is a global timetable and the U.S. Senate is fully aware of it . . . The world cannot wait on the Senate’s timetable.”

Some European climate chiefs and scientific advisers are concerned that current delays in the U.S. could lead to a watered-down treaty coming out of Copenhagen. David, King, former scientific adviser to the UK government, may be speaking for others when he indicated it would be preferable to postpone negotiations to next year rather than risk a weak deal.

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Copyright 2009 - K.J.Collins