BBC News 25 Nov 09;
President Barack Obama is to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the US in several stages, beginning with a 17% cut by 2020, the White House has said.
The offer will be made at December's UN climate talks in Copenhagen, which Mr Obama will attend.
But he does not plan to be there for the crucial last days, when delegates including other world leaders are hoping to pull together a deal.
The talks aim to draw up a new treaty to supplant the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said his attendance could be vital for a deal.
"It's critical that President Obama attends the climate change summit in Copenhagen," he told journalists.
The cuts Mr Obama has proposed are similar to those included in a bill passed by the US House of Representatives in June.
But with legislation currently stuck in the Senate, correspondents say the president will be unable to commit to any of the figures he is proposing at the summit.
So far more than 60 world leaders have said they will attend.
Observers say the presence of such figures as Mr Obama will raise hopes for action on climate change, although the talks are not expected to result in a new treaty.
'Momentum for talks'
Officials said the US would pledge a 17% cut in emissions from 2005 levels by 2020, 30% by 2025, 42% by 2030 and 83% by 2050.
Mr Obama will outline a "pathway" towards the US goals at the summit, a White House statement said.
It described the cuts as "a significant contribution to a problem that the US has neglected for too long".
But most other countries' targets are given in comparison with 1990 figures.
BBC environment correspondent Richard Black says that on that basis the US figure amounts to just a few percentage points, as its emissions have risen by about 15% since 1990.
This is much less than the EU's pledge of a 20% cut over the same period, or a 30% cut if there is a global deal; and much less than the 25-40% figure that developing countries are demanding.
The US president will be in the Danish capital on 9 December, a day before receiving his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
But he does not plan to return for the key last stages of the 7-18 December summit.
Major priority
Responding to the announcement, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said: "I welcome that President Obama has committed to come to Copenhagen. HAVE YOUR SAY I'm sure the event in Copenhagen will be beneficial for Planet Earth Juan Leonidas Vega G, San Salvador
"I have made clear that we need as many world leaders present as possible. I hope that others will follow suit."
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the host of the talks, said he hoped Mr Obama could "contribute to an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen".
The announcement was also welcome by environmental group Friends of the Earth.
"Obama's pledge to go to Copenhagen is a welcome and significant development - but he must adopt a 'Yes we can' attitude in the UN climate talks if he is to earn his Nobel prize," spokesman Tom Picken said.
"The US is the world's biggest per capita polluter. It has a moral responsibility to take the lead in securing a strong and fair agreement."
The decision follows intense speculation about whether the US president would go at all.
Delegations from 192 countries will be attending the summit.
Leaders saying they will attend include UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.
Hu Jintao, president of the world's largest polluter, China, is yet to commit to attending.
The US is the second largest polluter after China.
Mr Obama has made climate change a major priority for his administration, after previous incumbents had failed to ratify the Kyoto treaty.
A bill to cap US emissions and establish a national carbon trading scheme is currently stuck in the Senate and is not expected to pass before the end of the year.
But Senator John Kerry, co-sponsor of the Senate bill, said Mr Obama's move could have an impact on domestic politics.
"This could be one hell of a global game changer with big reverberations here at home," he said.
Correspondents say most nations have given up hope of a legally binding treaty because of uncertainty about the US position.
CUTS ALREADY PLEDGED
# EU - 20% cut from 1990 levels, rising to 30% in the event of a global agreement
# Australia - 25% from 2000 levels
# Japan - 25% from 1990 levels
Obama to head to Copenhagen with climate pledge
Shaun Tandon Yahoo News 25 Nov 09;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama will head to next month's Copenhagen climate summit to offer the first US plan to cut carbon emissions, officials said Wednesday, reviving hopes the closely watched meeting will succeed.
The Obama administration offered to curb US emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 -- less than calls by the European Union, Japan and UN scientists but the first numbers on the table by the world's largest economy.
"The president going to Copenhagen will give positive momentum to the negotiations and we think will enhance the prospects for success," Carol Browner, Obama's top aide on climate policy, told reporters.
Obama will address the meeting in Copenhagen on December 9, the day before he heads to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mike Froman, the deputy national security adviser, said Obama decided to go after sensing progress in talks with China, India and other emerging economies, which rich nations are pressing to do more on global warming.
A carefully worded White House statement said Obama was putting on the table the US offer "in the context of an overall deal in Copenhagen that includes robust mitigation contributions from China and the other emerging economies."
The White House said Obama would lay out a longer term plan for a 30 percent reduction of US emissions from 2005 levels by 2025, a 42 percent reduction by 2030 and an 83 percent cut by 2050.
Browner said the near-term offer was "in the range" of 17 percent depending on legislation in the deeply divided US Senate, which has delayed action on climate change until next year.
Foreign leaders and environmentalists hailed Obama's presence, hoping it would breathe new life into the December 7-18 conference meant to draft the successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, whose obligations expire in 2012. Carbon emissions curbs: How key countries line up
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said that if the US offer was clear-cut, it can "help pave the way for a successful outcome at Copenhagen."
But he also said that developed nations needed to come forward on another key part of negotiations -- pledging financing to help poorer nations cope with climate change.
"If the president comes in the first week to announce that, it would be a major boost to the conference," said de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in charge of the conference.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said he was "pleased" Obama would come to his country and hoped the visit would "contribute to an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen."
France's environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo, who was on his way to China, hailed Obama's offer and said it would help persuade Beijing.
"It's an extremely encouraging first response," Borloo told AFP.
Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of charity Oxfam America, said Obama had lived up to election pledges by showing he is "ready to roll up his sleeves to make a climate change deal happen."
"Today's announcement flies in the face of predictions of failure in Copenhagen well before the conference even begins," he said.
Obama campaigned on promises to fight global warming, a sharp reversal from his predecessor George W. Bush, who disputed evidence on climate change until late in his presidency and called the Kyoto Protocol unfair to rich countries.
But the US Congress has yet to complete legislation to mandate cuts in emissions, amid staunch opposition from many members of Bush's Republican Party.
Obama's offer reflects a bill narrowly passed by the House of Representatives in June that envisages cuts of 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050.
A slightly more ambitious bill before the Senate talks of a 20 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020.
Senator John Kerry, who has spearheaded the bill, said Obama's announcement could sway not only other nations but also US lawmakers. Related article: Climate action 'can avert health crisis'.
"This could be one hell of a global game changer with big reverberations here at home," Kerry said.
"The Obama administration is now undeniably mustering bona fide leadership on climate change, not merely departing from Bush administration intransigence and ideology," said Kerry, who unsuccessfully challenged Bush for the White House in 2004.
Compared with the 1990 benchmark used by almost every other country, the US target only amounts to something like a four percent reduction in emissions of the gases blamed for global warming.
The European Union has vowed to reduce its emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels before 2020, raising the target to 30 percent in the event of an international agreement. Japan has offered 25 percent, but attached conditions.
