Obama to take goal of 17 percent emissions cut to Copenhagen talks.
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will attend the U.N. climate summit next month in Denmark, taking with him a target to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020, the White House said Wednesday.The pledge will not be part of a binding international treaty — the hopes for which have been dashed by the lack of a climate law coming out of Congress — but it will mimic the cuts passed by the House earlier this year. The Senate is still debating climate legislation.
"This provisional target" of 17 percent "is in line with current legislation in both chambers of Congress and demonstrates a significant contribution to a problem that the U.S. has neglected for too long," the White House said in a statement.
The president will attend the summit on Dec. 9 before heading to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama's negotiating position for the talks in Copenhagen has been hampered by slow progress on a climate bill in the Senate.
The House bill sets a 17 percent reduction target for emissions by 2020 from 2005 levels. A Senate version aims for a 20 percent cut.
The European Union is pressing for more aggressive cuts and has pledged a 20 percent drop in its emissions compared to 1990 levels.
Template, not treaty expected
The conference had originally been intended to produce a new global climate change treaty on limiting emissions of greenhouse gases that would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. However, hopes for a legally binding agreement have dimmed lately, with leaders saying the summit is more likely to produce a template for future action to cut emissions blamed for global warming.
While Obama himself tried to tamp down expectations during his eight-day trip to Asia earlier this month, he also called on world leaders to come to an agreement that has "immediate operational effect" and is not just a political declaration.
Administration officials said earlier this week that the U.S. would present a target for reducing carbon dioxide emissions at the summit.
The development came as the European Union urged the United States and China to deliver greenhouse gas emissions targets at the summit, saying their delays were hindering global efforts to curb climate change.
The administration has indicated for nearly a year that it would eventually come up with specific targets for quick reductions in pollution that causes global warming, as part of international negotiations. Those targets will soon be made public, officials said.
