Obama Pressured to Return to Copenhagen For Climate Talks
“I would hope since he went to push Chicagos bid for the Olympics, he would go back in December to help save the world from climate change,” said Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Environment Groups U.S. Global Warming Campaign in Washington.
The U.S., China and 190 other countries are set to gather in Copenhagen to hammer out terms for a climate accord to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown promises to be there if needed to “clinch the deal” and is urging other world leaders to do the same. Obama would consider returning if the talks were designed to be between heads of state, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters traveling with the president aboard Air Force One yesterday.
Obamas personal request for a Chicago Olympics was denied yesterday when the International Olympic Committee chose Rio de Janiero. Environmental activists such as Greenpeace used his presence in Copenhagen to pressure him on the climate meeting.
“Right city, wrong date,” read a Greenpeace banner that hung from Copenhagens St. Nicholas Church Tower, overlooking the square where Obama met with the Danish royal family and Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
“If the U.S. is to lead the world in getting a fair, ambitious and binding agreement in Copenhagen, then the president needs to lead,” said Michael Crocker, a spokesman for Greenpeace USA in Washington.
Technocrats and Bureaucrats
“Its clear the technocrats and bureaucrats havent been able to get the job done and having the gravitas of heads of state in the same room negotiating may be what is required,” he said.
Obamas decision may hinge on whether he has U.S. climate- change legislation to tout at the December meeting. While the House of Representatives passed a bill to cap greenhouse-gas emissions in June, Democratic Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer introduced a proposed bill three days ago.
U.S. lawmakers arent likely to approve climate change legislation by the time countries meet in Copenhagen, the White Houses top energy adviser, Carol Browner said at a conference in Washington yesterday.
Allocate Permits
“I would hope President Obama will be put in a position that he can go to Copenhagen in December because the U.S. has legislation passed or near being passed,” John Bruton, the European Unions ambassador to the U.S., said in an interview yesterday.
“That would enable the U.S. to lead by example on climate change,” he said. “Im really hoping a return trip to Copenhagen will be possible for the president.”
At a working dinner on climate change of about 20 world leaders last week in New York, “many” heads of state and government said they were willing to attend the Copenhagen negotiations, according to a UN news release on Sept. 22.
Outreach Needed
“Other nations hope the presidents willingness to go to Copenhagen for the Olympics signals that he will be willing to do the same kind of outreach needed to move the climate issue forward,” said Annie Petsnok, a lawyer for Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group based in New York. She previously worked in the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton
Dan Esty, head of Yale Universitys Center for Environmental Law & Policy in New Haven, Connecticut, said hes “doubtful” Obama will attend the Copenhagen meeting because the likelihood for a successful negotiation is slim.
The biggest obstacle in getting a climate agreement in Copenhagen is lack of U.S. legislation to “signal to the rest of the world that we are getting serious about reducing emissions,” Esty said in an interview.