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Administrator officials told Reuters
that President Obama would attend the Copenhagen Conference in
December. Officials said that he would stop by the conference on Dec.
9 on his way to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
Hopes for an international agreement have been squashed recently after the Obama Administration and other leaders in the world declared a finalized deal simply 'too hard' to work out right now. President Obama has been hamstrung by the Senate's inability to act on the energy and climate bill before them due to the healthcare tie-up there. Some argue that the stalling of the healthcare bill was a Republican strategy to push off energy legislation until next year after the Copenhagen conference in hopes that the issue would simply die after a failed international agreement.
The conference in Copenhagen runs from Dec. 7-18, and leading Heads of State in other countries are planning to attend at the tail end of the meeting. President Obama's Dec.9 visit does not allow him to be able to personally work out details in person with other leaders at the conference.
Although President Obama has stated that climate change is a top priority of his administration, he looks foolish accepting the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" and then not put forth the extra effort needed to represent the U.S. fully at the conference.
Other world leaders have begun criticizing the U.S. saying that America's inability to define acceptable emission reduction targets is causing other nations to sidestep enacting their own domestic regulations, thus causing the failure of accomplishing the conference's goals.
Hu Jintao, president of China has not committed to attending the conference, and President Obama's 'fly-by' will probably not convince the Chinese leader to attend. (BBC)
Together, China and the U.S. are the number one and number two emitters of greenhouse gases accounting for over 40% of all global emissions. Without them there, other countries in the world see their efforts as futile in combating climate change.
"It is significant that he will appear at the beginning rather than at the end of the 12-day meeting. Most major decisions at such environmental forums come at the very end of the process", the NYT reports.
The Washington Post says that "officials in many countries also pledged to reach an interim agreement that would not be legally binding on the countries, but would set targets for emission reductions and be a step toward a treaty", a step that the Union of Concerned Scientists agrees with.
Critics of the progress of the climate bill in the Senate see the Obama Administration's one-day stopover in Copenhagen as a case of 'too little, too late', but hope the the Administration will throw its full weight behind passing an energy bill in the first part of 2010 using an interim agreement hashed out in Copenhagen as a blueprint for action.
The L.A. Times is reporting that President Obama is set to pledge a 17% drop in U.S. emissions from 2005 levels by 2020, a level of emissions still above the 1990 level that other countries are using. Essentially, President Obama is having trouble committing to reducing U.S. emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Other countries in the world have already promised reducing their own emissions by 25% from 1990 levels, making President Obama seem as though his statements regarding climate change are simply rhetoric, and that he does not have the political will to turn his words into action.
One such window for action is quickly approaching in Copenhagen. There will be other chances to define an international climate treaty, but the here-and-now is always the best place to take action.
