Quotes in a Bloomberg article admit that bad-weather-prevention might involve "pain", is "politically toxic", and Obama "doesn't get it"

Climate Treaty Hinges on Obama Making Case, Ex-Aides Say - Bloomberg

No leaders from any major economy including Obama attended the Doha talks.
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Claudia McMurray, a climate negotiator under President George W. Bush, said the president “needs to go out in the country and explain what the problem is and what the steps are to go from the current energy economy to the next, and that it might involve some pain.”
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“Climate change is still a politically toxic issue,” [Trevor Houser, a U.S. negotiator during the Copenhagen negotiations] said in an e-mailed response to questions.
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The American public is “nowhere near” alarmed enough about global warming to back dramatic action, said Robert Stavins, director of the Economics Program at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Tim Wirth, a former Democratic senator from Colorado who served Clinton as a climate negotiator, doesn’t have faith that Obama will make headway without a groundswell from the public.

“He doesn’t get it,” Wirth said in an interview. “It’s not in his gut.”