After one of the briefest honeymoons in history, developing nations at U.N. climate change talks in Poland are saying that President-elect Barack Obama’s goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions don’t go far enough.

Delegates from China and India told Reuters at the Dec. 1-12 talks that they welcomed Obama’s plan to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 compared to less ambitious goals set by President George W. Bush. (Emissions are now about 14 percent above 1990 ).

But they say Obama isn’t going far enough. See story here.

Developing nations want all developed nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by far more. That, they say, is the condition for the poor to start slowing their own rising emissions from factories, power plants and cars.

Is that realistic? Can the United States cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020? And how far should developing nations curb their own emissions as part of a new deal on global warming meant to be agreed by the end of 2009?

Farm subsidies in many rich countries are high but the Norwegian $16-a-day cows have to be among the most astronomical examples.

The problem is that Norway wants farmers in the Arctic county of Finnmark to produce milk — but since it’s so cold for much of the year the herds have to live in heated barns and food has to be trucked in.

That’s clearly bad economics and far worse for the environment than cows grazing outside on grass.

The government argues that a Viking-style resolve to keep society going in remote Arctic regions means cows have to live in the barren north and that the alternative of closing down dairy farms and trucking in milk is worse.

According to a study by the Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute, the average subsidies for a dairy farmer in the high north totalled 503,586 Norwegian crowns ($98,720) in 2006. Each farmer looks after an average herd of 17 cows, so that works out at about $16 per cow every day.

 In a world where more than a billion people live on less than a dollar a day in developing nations, those cows sound absurdly expensive.

Or are they worth it?

What do you think?