(Update: Energy lobbyists are hard at work in developed countries, pressing to make sure the Copenhagen conference doesn’t harm the fossil fuel industry, according to an investigative report by the Center for Public Integrity. Check out the Center’s interactive map of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters.)

(Also: Here is a United Nation’s report on what climate change is already doing to the earth and its inhabitants, along with a forecast of what’s to come.)

Probably this week, President Obama will announce whether he will attend next month’s international climate change conference in Copenhagen — and what the U.S.will be offering up. The latest news scuttlebutt is that the U.S. delegation is set to propose greenhouse gas emissions limits similar to what Congress is considering.

No one is counting on a treaty to come from the conference, nor is there any hope that Congress will pass a climate change bill by then.