Hoping to make a decisive impact when the climate change talks culminate, Obama has rescheduled his visit at United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen to Dec. 18, the last day of the summit, the White House said Friday.
The 11 days climate change conference in Copenhagen is starting Dec.7.
Obama was earlier expected to visit the Copenhagen summit on Dec. 9 while on his way to receive Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
Now the president will appear at a time when the world leaders would have thrashed out their differences and reached consensus on how to cut the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs)
“The president believes that continued US leadership can be most productive through his participation at the end of the Copenhagen conference”, the White House stated.
About the summit
At climate change summit in Copenhagen, the governments of various countries will meet to set targets to reduce GHGs emissions.
Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol treaty, aimed at prevent climate changes and global warming, runs out in 2012, there is a need to renew climate protocol.
This will be the last time that United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meets on the government level, before the climate change agreement is renewed.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that, in order to keep global warming below the two degree Celsius compared to pre-industrial temperatures, the developed nations should cut GHGs emission by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 80-95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
The meet in Copenhagen is not expected to chalk out a global climate treaty, but is expected to reach consensus on important issues like the following:
• How much are the developed nations willing to cut GHGs emissions?
• How much will the developing nations be willing to cut emissions?
• How much help is needed by developing nations to reduce impact of climate change?
• How much resources are going to be involved?
Progress made so far
Obama believes that it is possible to reach a meaningful consensus in Copenhagen in the upcoming days.
With just two days left for the commencement of the climate summit, countries like India and China announced their plans to lower carbon emissions.
India this week offered to reduce its emissions intensity by 25 percent per unit of gross domestic product from 2005 to 2020. Last week, even China had set its target to cut emission by up to 45 percent during the same period.
Even U.S. will table its emission targets, up to 17 percent below 2005 level in 2020 and up to 83 percent reduction by 2050.
This week, Obama discussed the status of the Copenhagen summit with leaders from Germany, UK and France. He concluded that there seems to be an emerging consensus that the Copenhagen meet should be able to reach an agreement to mobilize $10 billion a year by 2012 to help least developed countries mitigate impacts of climate change.
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