US to set emissions target as world leaders commit to Copenhagen

US Government officials in Washington confirmed today that Barack Obama will visit the climate change conference at the beginning of the talks. And yesterday, officials said the Obama administration would make clear within the next few days what its greenhouse gas emissions goal would be.

The news means 61 presidents and prime ministers have stated they plan to attend the Copenhagen Summit.

The talks were intended to draw up a new global climate treaty to supplant the UN's 1997 Kyoto Protocol. But there have long been serious doubts over whether the biggest polluters will commit to emissions reduction targets. Leaders and political commentators have been saying the summit is more likely to produce a route-map for future action to cut emissions linked to climate change.

However, with the United States now set to announce concrete targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and with confirmation the US president will go to the Danish capital on December 9, on his way to picking up the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, hopes have been raised.

While in Copenhagen, Obama is expected to make a provisional pledge to cut pollution-causing carbon dioxide emissions by about 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao did make a joint declaration last week stating that they aimed to make real progress in tackling climate change at next month's UN climate summit, which was warmly received by some leading environmental groups.

In all, 65 leaders and delegations from 192 countries, have confirmed they plan to attend Copenhagen. Nations that plan to send their leaders to Copenhagen include Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom, a Danish official said. Top polluters China and India, have still not indicated whether their leaders will attend the meeting, though.


Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who is a key negotiator at the summit, stated yesterday he hoped that the summit can reach a non-binding political agreement that would be codified sometime next year.

However, he also stated that reaching what he called an "operational framework agreement" was "not inevitable" and that the negotiations will be "very tough".

As the world's largest exporter of coal with the highest per capita emissions of any developed nation, Mr Rudd is going to have a tough job selling the climate negotiation outcomes to Australian industry and the Australian people, but has said he wants to be part of the solution.

"This shows that heads of state and government are ready to fly in, realising that the political momentum is pointing towards Copenhagen as the place ... to address the outstanding issues so we can conclude an ambitious deal," said Løkke Rasmussen — the host and chairman of the climate talk. "The active involvement of heads of state and government is crucial."

European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso declared earlier this month at an EU-US summit in Washington, that: “Of course we are not going to have a full-fledged binding treaty, Kyoto-type, by Copenhagen,” Mr Barroso said. “This is obvious. There is no time for that.” Obama's advisers say he is working in private to push toward a solution that would yield a binding agreement at a meeting in Mexico next year.

Gordon Brown, expected to attend the final days of the two-week summit, has also acknowledged that a pact may not be sealed until 2010, but wrote to Rasmussen last weekend stating that the meeting needs national leaders "to make the final decisions necessary to achieve agreement."

Friends of the Earth's Executive Director Andy Atkins has acknowledged recent positive developments and given precise indicators of what’s necessary for the negotiations to succeed: "At the very least the world's richest nations must agree to substantially slash their emissions between 2012 and 2016 - as most of them are legally obliged to do under the Kyoto climate treaty - and agree a comprehensive finance and technology package to allow developing countries to develop cleanly and deal with the impacts of climate change.”