ANALYST VIEW: Obama urges swift action on global warming

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao announced new goals on Tuesday to slow the growth in his country's carbon dioxide emissions while U.S. President Barack Obama warned time was short to act on global warming.

Following are reactions to the summit, meant to spur negotiations on a 190-nation deal due to be reached in Copenhagen at a meeting from December 7-18:

ROBERT WATSON, CHIEF SCIENTIST, UK ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY, FORMER CHAIR OF U.N. CLIMATE PANEL -- "Clearly the issue is we need substantive commitments from basically all the major OECD countries to move forward, in order to stimulate developing countries also to move forward to a low-carbon economy."

"While I fully agree we mustn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good in Copenhagen, by the time we get to Copenhagen we will need some specifics laid on the table to see what the opportunities are to go to a decarbonized world."

On a Copenhagen deal, U.S. President Barack Obama said in his speech on Tuesday: "Difficulty is no excuse for complacency. And we must not allow the perfect to become the enemy of progress. Each of us must do what we can when we can to grow our economies without endangering our planet -- and we must all do it together."

NICK MABEY, HEAD OF LONDON-BASED E3G THINK-TANK

"It was a very disappointing speech from Obama. I don't think that any other leaders would have taken away a particularly strong idea that he was going to fight for action on climate change at home.

The clear thing was that at this summit there is a massive gap between when leaders talk about the problem and the ability to move to solutions.

There was a spirit of renewed realism but I think Obama will come under a lot of pressure to raise this up his personal agenda."

Mabey also said that Chinese President Hu Jintao had announced less than hoped after Beijing said last week that he would be setting new goals. "Given the strong trails which emerged from the Chinese side I think it hurts momentum."

CHANGHUA WU, CHINA DIRECTOR, THE CLIMATE GROUP -- "Hu repeated what China's already been doing in terms of carbon intensity, renewables, forestry and R&D. I can't see anything new, but that everyone wants a deal in Copenhagen is clear."

"Hu described the carbon intensity target as a commitment, that's an indication that what China is doing will be continued."

KNUT ALFSEN, HEAD OF RESEARCH, CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL

CLIMATE AND ENERGY RESEARCH, OSLO

"It was a bit disappointing that China did not give a number for greenhouse gas intensity. I had expected it to come now."

"But this is progress. Five years ago climate was a non-issue for China. Now they have turned around and are saying 'we are going to do something now'. This is a tremendous shift."

Hu said China would aim for a cut in the amount of emissions per unit of economic output by a "notable margin" by 2020. Alfsen said Chinese experts working on the next five-year plan were considering clear specific percentages.

MICHAEL ALLEGRETTI, U.S. POLICY ADVISOR, THE CLIMATE GROUP

"Obama's speech in my opinion was as much directed at a U.S. audience. He's aware that the healthcare debate is taking the oxygen out of the political debate (on climate). He appears to be keeping a bit in the bank, perhaps to make a bolder statement before Copenhagen."

(Reporting by Alister Doyle in Oslo and Gerard Wynn in London; Editing by Jon Hemming)