Obama says summit in Copenhagen will ‘rally world’ for climate change push

President Barack Obama touted the importance of next month’s
climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in spite of the event’s downgraded
objectives.

Obama over the weekend acknowledged the meeting won’t
produce a legally binding deal to cut emissions, but on Tuesday he insisted a
political agreement in Copenhagen, the new goal of the summit, will have an
“immediate” effect.

{mosads}“Our aim there, in support of what Prime Minister [Lars Lokke] Rasmussen
of Denmark is trying to achieve, is not a partial accord or a political
declaration, but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the
negotiations, and one that has immediate operational effect,” Obama said in
Beijing following a meeting with China’s president.

“This kind of comprehensive agreement would be an important
step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution to our climate
challenge,” he added.

In Singapore over the weekend, Obama and other heads of
state said the objective for Copenhagen would be a political agreement on
climate change. Lower-level administration officials had already been
downgrading expectations for a final binding agreement on cutting emissions.

Obama made the remarks after he and Chinese President Hu Jintao announced
a series of joint “clean energy” agreements that Obama cast as a sign of
progress on climate change. China and the U.S. are the world’s two largest
emitters of greenhouse gas emissions.

The two nations have reached several specific agreements on
low-emissions power and vehicles, the White House said. This includes
establishment of a joint clean energy research center, building on an agreement
Energy Secretary Steven Chu reached with Chinese officials in July. Other joint
measures are aimed at spurring use of electric vehicles, renewable power,
low-emissions coal and other technologies.

Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Froman stressed that
the U.S.-China deal would add momentum to international efforts in Copenhagen
despite the absence from the agreement of specifics on emissions-curbing
measures.

“I think the agreement today reflected in the joint
statement does give momentum to the Copenhagen process,” Froman told reporters.
He acknowledged that “further specifics” must be fleshed out by negotiators.

China is believed to back a reduction in its emissions
intensity — which means emissions relative to economic activity — rather than
an outright reduction target.

“They have sent a strong signal that they are prepared to
move forward with an intensity goal. But whether they make that announcement in
Copenhagen or wait until the U.S. passes legislation, we still don’t know,”
said Jennifer Layke, the deputy director of the climate and energy program at
the World Resources Institute.

One of the reasons the goals of Copenhagen have been
downgraded is that Congress has been unable to send a climate change bill to
Obama.

{mosads}The House in late June passed a sweeping bill to cut U.S.
emissions by 17 percent in 2020 and 80 percent by mid-century, relative to 2005
levels. But a similar plan is moving slowly in the Senate, and Democrats have
shelved floor action until next year.

Layke and others view enactment of a U.S. law to strongly
reduce its emissions as crucial to reaching a final legal accord in negotiations
after Copenhagen.

“I can’t imagine a world where we are able to craft an
adequate global target without the United States being part of that agreement,”
she  said.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s gloomy jobs forecast from Monday could make it harder for Senate Democrats to advance stalled climate
legislation, or at least make the success of a core selling point — the
prospect of scores of “green jobs” — all the more decisive.

“The best thing we can say about the labor market right now
is that it may be getting worse more slowly,” Bernanke said in New York on Monday.

Unemployment reached 10.2 percent in October and is expected
to keep growing for several months.