Two experts representing different parts of the energy debate on Thursday urged U.S. leadership on international climate change efforts leading up to, during and after the U.N. talks next month in Copenhagen.

"The world is waiting for the U.S. to pass legislation," Carter Roberts, CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, told reporters Thursday at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. Key countries like China and India are "holding their cards until they see what the U.S. is going to deliver," Roberts added. His hope is that President Obama comes to Copenhagen with a bipartisan blueprint that can be signed into law in the middle of 2010. "I can't overstate the importance of U.S. leadership in solving the problem," Roberts stressed. "If the U.S. comes with signals and architecture for specific targets and international provisions, then other countries will come forward with specific targets and provisions, which is the only way we're going to solve the problem."

"U.S. leadership is absolutely critical," agreed Retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, a former deputy chief of Naval Operations and an expert on the connection between climate change and national security. "It would be a shame if because of lack of action or commitment by the United States, other nations use that as an excuse to do nothing on their own." Right now, he said, "in some ways, it seems like the U.S. is dealing with these challenges in a defensive crouch."

But while Roberts said the U.N. climate negotiations could prompt the Senate to pass a climate change bill, McGinn wasn't so sure. "I don't think Copenhagen is going to act as a catalyst necessarily," he told NationalJournal.com after the discussion. "I think it can help. I think it can create somewhat of a legislative imperative."

Roberts said that leaders in Copenhagen should "lay the foundations for a legally enforceable agreement over time," echoing the sequence of events laid out by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kerry earlier this month: some sort of agreement in Copenhagen that sets a framework for further talks later in 2010, followed by passage of U.S. legislation, then a legally binding global treaty. McGinn agreed that this would be a more "realistic" time frame than attempting to forge a legally binding agreement in Copenhagen.

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