There’s a new international treaty process getting started that bears serious observation. The Kyoto global warming treaty (which the US signed but did not ratify) is set to expire in 2012 and negotiations are beginning now for a replacement. It all starts this month in Poznan, Poland.

The Chinese have gotten a jump on it all by wagging their finger at other nations. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao was recently quoted by the state news agency as saying “The developed countries have a responsibility and an obligation to respond to global climate change by altering their unsustainable way of life.”

Early last month, China had the helpful idea that developed nations spend one percent of their economic output toward helping poor countries fight global warming.

This is an astounding thing to hear from a nation that in October surpassed even the terrible United States in terms of overall CO2 production. It’s even more astounding to hear it at a time when the world’s economies are in such fragile shape.

China says that its per capita emissions are low (because it has so many people) – but it’s hard to see why that should matter.

I believe the focus of the current public debate — is climate change happening and did humans cause it or not? — is the wrong debate. More evidence than not points to warming, and that human activity plays a role.

The real question is: what to do about that? The current options in the public realm are mostly focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but even the optimistic suggestions do not contemplate significant reductions. We need to shift more energy away from argument about whether we have a problem and whether we can pinch pennies to make it go away — to a discussion about how we might adapt as a species to a warmer world. While this discussion may be taking place in scientific circles, it is not prevalent enough in the policy debates. And, ultimately, we’ll be able to mitigate only so much. We’re going to have to adapt our way of life to changes in climate. Why not start now?

While I do believe there is plenty to argue about what our response ought to be when it comes to climate change (mitigate, adapt, innovate, or a mix), it’s undeniable that in the new administration and the new Congress we’re going to see much more focus on CO2.