Obama expects agreement at Copenhagen

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Dec 8 (PTI) Encouraged by India and
China's decision to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, US
President Barack Obama is hopeful that an agreement could be
reached at the ongoing climate conference in Copenhagen.
This is the reason why Obama has changed his
participating date at the Copenhagen Summit from December 9 to
December 18, as he believes that his negotiations might
require a last minute push by world leaders, said Robert
Gibbs, White House Press Secretary.
"Based on developments, primarily with the Chinese and
the Indians, I think everybody agrees that we are in a better
position -- I mean, 'we,' globally -- to get some sort of
agreement out of Copenhagen," Gibbs said at a briefing here
Monday.
"The President believed, having helped to work both in
enunciating our commitments, as well as ensuring that the
Indians and the Chinese talked about their commitments, that
we could move that to the end of the conference when some
agreement is likely to need some help from world leaders,"
Gibbs told reporters.
"We announced the trip prior to Oslo, believing that
talks in Copenhagen would be good for the President to go and
give some momentum to those talks at the beginning of the
period in Copenhagen," he said.

When asked about US' commitment in this regard, Gibbs
said, "The President continues to strongly believe that the
best way forward is through the passage of comprehensive
energy legislation, the type of which previously passed the
House and is being considered now on the Senate side; that the
best way to move forward is through the legislative process,
understanding that the Court ruled that some action had to be
taken based on the lawsuit."
Meanwhile, Obama today met Nobel Laureate Al Gore, the
former Vice-President and a leading advocate of climate
change.
Obama, who was earlier scheduled to attend the
Copenhagen Summit on December 9, would now be travelling there
on December 18 as the White House now believes that there is
greater chances of reaching an agreement, mainly because of
the new emission cuts targets announced by India and China.
"Based on his conversations with other leaders and the
progress that has already been made to give momentum to
negotiations, the President believes that continued US
leadership can be most productive through his participation at
the end of the Copenhagen conference on December 18 rather
than on December 9," the White House press secretary said.
"Following bilateral meetings with the President and
since the United States announced an emissions reduction
target that reflects the progress being made in Congress
towards comprehensive energy legislation, China and India have
for the first time set targets to reduce their carbon
intensity," Gibbs had said last week. PTI LKJ
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