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Obama Will Carry Pledge of 17% U.S. Emissions Cut to Copenhagen Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Kim Chipman

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen for climate-change talks, where he’ll offer to cut U.S. emissions about 17 percent by 2020 in an effort to help break a deadlock between rich and poor nations.

Obama will visit the Danish capital on Dec. 9 during negotiations on a global climate treaty. The U.S. will propose cutting its emissions “in the range of 17 percent” from 2005 levels by 2020, Carol Browner, Obama’s top adviser on energy and the environment, told reporters yesterday. It will be the first time the U.S. has offered such a target.

U.S. legislation backed by Obama to cut greenhouse gases and establish a market for the trading of pollution allowances passed the House in June and then stalled in the Senate. Administration officials said they aren’t going to Denmark empty-handed and Obama’s attendance will send a strong signal.

“The president going to Copenhagen will give positive momentum to the negotiations,” Michael Froman, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for international economics, told reporters yesterday. “We think it will enhance the prospects for success.”

Negotiations for a new global climate treaty have been stymied as industrialized nations and developing countries failed to agree on issues such as emissions-reduction targets and how much financial help rich nations should provide to poor ones.

China and India have said industrialized countries must be willing to cut their carbon output 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 if they expect poorer nations to agree to long-term reduction goals.

‘Ambitious Actions’

The Obama administration hopes other major economies will “put forth ambitious actions of their own,” Browner said.

Obama, who campaigned on a pledge to tackle climate change, has been under pressure to attend the meeting and offer a 2020 reduction target. The U.S., the biggest greenhouse-gas producer among developed nations, has faced criticism for failing to enact legislation.

Obama’s attendance is “critical,” Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change, which runs the talks, said yesterday in a Webcast from Bonn.

“The world is very much looking to the U.S. to come up with an emissions reduction target” as well as financial aid to help developing countries cut emissions and adapt to global warming, de Boer said.

The proposed U.S. emissions reduction is in line with the pending legislation in Congress. The House-passed measure calls for a 17 percent reduction while a version in the Senate calls for a cut of 20 percent.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said last week that his chamber won’t take up legislation until “sometime in the spring.”

‘Global Game-Changer’

Obama’s decision to go to Copenhagen could prod Congress, Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who has sought a bipartisan compromise on the Senate climate bill, said in a statement.

It “could be one hell of a global game-changer with big reverberations here at home,” he said.

The president’s plans were also welcomed by companies such as DuPont Co. that are pushing for a cap on U.S. carbon-dioxide pollution that scientists blame for climate change.

It “sends a message that addressing climate and energy challenges are priorities for the U.S.,” Michael Parr, manager of government affairs for Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont, the third-biggest U.S. chemical maker, said in a statement.

“Obama has a great story to tell,” James Roger, chief executive officer of Duke Energy Corp., said in an interview last week, citing House passage of climate legislation and the adoption of greenhouse-gas standards for vehicles. Duke owns electric utilities in the U.S. Southeast and Midwest.

‘Weak and Unfair’

Dissenting from the praise, Friends of the Earth said Obama’s administration has “pushed for a weak and unfair” climate accord.

“The president needs to do more than just show up,” Erich Pica, president of the Washington-based environmental group, said in a statement. “He must ensure that the U.S. promotes real solutions.”

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has invited the heads of almost 200 countries to the Danish capital for the last two days of the Dec. 7-18 meeting. So far, at least 65 leaders have said they will attend. They include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Political Agreement

Leaders including Obama have said that a binding accord for reducing greenhouse gases isn’t expected in Copenhagen. The UN had previously said the meeting would mark the deadline for completing a treaty.

Instead, leaders are now calling for a “meaningful” political agreement as a framework for a final accord to replace to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Negotiations are expected to continue next year.

Obama’s visit to Copenhagen, during the first of two weeks of climate talks, will be followed the next day by a stop in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at [email protected].