The White House on Wednesday announced that Obama will travel to the Danish capital of Copenhagen on Dec. 9 for part of a United Nations conference aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change and reducing the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. More significantly, the administration laid out targets for emission reductions that Obama will put on the table: "in the range of 17 percent below 2005 [U.S.] levels in 2020," as part of Obama's previously announced long-term target of cutting emissions by more than 80 percent by 2050.
As emission-reduction measures worked their way through a fractious Congress this year, the president had until this week avoided setting his own numbers. The 17 percent target announced Wednesday would conform with a House bill passed in June, while a bill under consideration in the Senate would set a 20 percent target. There is little expectation that Congress will finish work on a clean-energy bill this year, leaving plenty for proponents and opponents of emission controls to fight over in the months ahead.
Jens Panduro, Polfoto / AP
In Copenhagen earlier this month, climate activists demanded that rich countries do their fair share to reduce emissions.
The European Union has already vowed to unilaterally cut its emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. The difference between 17 percent and 20 percent may seem small, but when applied to the different emission levels of 1990 and 2005, the gap between expected negotiating points is huge. Moreover, the EU has also promised to set a target of reducing emissions by 30 percent of 1990 levels if other developed countries -- including the United States -- commit to doing so. Given the domestic battle Obama faces over his much more modest proposal, that seems unlikely.
Still, environmental advocacy groups welcomed the announcement and expressed optimism that the Europeans would, too.
"The Europeans understand the challenges of turning the big ship of U.S. emissions around," said Jake Schmidt, director of international policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Schmidt, who plans to be in Copenhagen for the conference next month, played down the differences over the 2020 targets and said clarification of the longer-term target and simply putting numbers out there send a positive signal. "Obviously, the Europeans would like a deeper commitment," he said, but "just a couple of months ago the Europeans were pushing the administration to show the kind of action they are willing to do."
Climate-control activists and European governments also hope that news of an administration target will encourage the major developing-country emitters -- notably China and India -- to lay out their own targets.
Meanwhile, a new poll taken by the Washington Post and ABC News suggests support for a national cap on greenhouse-gas emissions among Americans remains strong but could be slipping. In the past year, the percentage of respondents who believe global warming is taking place fell to 72 percent from 80 percent, the Post reports. It also found that 55 percent believe the United States should lower its emissions of carbon dioxide -- the most important greenhouse gas -- even if China and India do less.
