Obama walks tightrope on climate change

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is walking a tightrope on climate change -- and so far appears to be achieving a delicate balance.

At Obama's urging, Congress is working on a bill to curb greenhouse gas emissions with a cap-and-trade system. The developed world is again looking to the United States to lead on the climate issue after eight years of Washington sitting on the sidelines.

The president is balancing those moves with efforts to address concerns of U.S. business and win support, including plans to give away most of the pollution permits under the program, rather than auction them as he first wanted.

Some major American corporations -- Duke Energy and Johnson & Johnson -- have come out for cap and trade

But despite these symbolic advances, nothing has really changed in U.S. climate policy so far except rhetoric. That has unsettled many in the U.S. business community, which may yet elbow Obama off the highwire.

"It creates more economic pain than environmental gain," Ben Lieberman of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank said of Obama's "cap and trade" approach, which has drawn significant business opposition.

Obama's basic stance on climate change -- the problem is real, humans make it worse, the United States must do something to slow it -- is diametrically opposite to that espoused under former President George W. Bush, to the delight of many international climate negotiators.

With an eye on a December meeting in Copenhagen that many hope will yield a new global deal on capping emissions, they say Obama's aggressive approach on climate change may persuade fast-developing economies like China and India to join in.