WASHINGTON – US president Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen for a UN climate change meeting on December 9th, hoping to add momentum to the international process despite slow progress on a domestic Bill to cut carbon emissions.
The United States would pledge to cut its emissions by 17 per cent compared to 2005 levels by 2020 at the negotiations, White House officials said, and adjust accordingly after a US law is completed.
That corresponds to a 3 per cent US cut compared to 1990 levels – far less ambitious than other developed countries, including the EU, which has pledged a 20 per cent cut compared to 1990.
The United States also would pledge an 18 per cent cut by 2025 and a 32 per cent cut by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, officials said.
The US president has been under pressure to attend the Copenhagen talks to show his commitment to a global deal.
Mr Obama planned to make his visit at the beginning of the negotiations in Denmark, the White House said, before picking up the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
Mr Obama did not plan to return for the end of the December 7th-18th meeting. Some 65 other heads of state and government are expected to attend.
“We’re working with the Danes to ensure that his visit . . . gives maximal momentum to the ongoing negotiations,” said Michael Froman, one of the US negotiators at Copenhagen and a deputy national security adviser to Mr Obama.
The White House had formulated its emissions targets based on consultations with lawmakers, officials said.
Mr Obama has made climate change a top priority of his administration, but a Bill to cut US emissions is bogged down in the US Senate. The US House of Representatives has passed its version of climate change legislation.
The United Nations welcomed Mr Obama’s plan to attend the meeting as vital to achieving a strong deal. “It’s critical that President Obama attends the climate change summit in Copenhagen,” said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN climate change secretariat.
Mr de Boer said the world was looking to the United States to offer a goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and to offer money to help developing nations cope with global warming.
Most nations have given up hopes of agreeing to a binding legal treaty text in Copenhagen, partly because of uncertainty about what the United States will be able to offer.
Environmentalists had hoped Mr Obama would be present for the leaders’ meeting at the end of the talks to give legitimacy to a “politically binding” agreement that Denmark still hopes to achieve. In such an agreement, developed nations would set goals for cutting emissions by 2020; developing nations would agree to slow the rise of their emissions; and the rich would come up with new aid and clean technology to help the poor cope with climate change.– (Reuters)