Obama to Attend International Climate-change Summit
White House officials have announced that President Barack Obama will be traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark in December of this year to attend Conference of Parties 15, an international climate-change summit hosted by the United Nations. The conference is schedule to last from December 7-18, but it is not yet know how long President Obama will attend.
A news release produced by the White House says that President Obama is slated to set a goal to reduce emission levels. The president’s plan is said to contain the objective to reduce emission levels over the next decade to 17 percent below 2005 levels. These projected goals come after the president already announced a national goal to reduce emissions in the United States by 83 percent before 2050.
These goals are outlined in a climate-change bill that was recently passed by the House of Representatives. The Senate, however, has not yet passed the bill. Because it has not yet been approved by both unites of Congress, the United States has not formally committed itself to reaching any of the bill’s contained goals.
Obama’s Busy December
Even though Thanksgiving is tomorrow, President Barack Obama will have a lot on his plate for the rest of the calendar year. Until the end of 2009, The President will have a backed schedule that will require him to bounce all over Europe.
In addition to attending the U.N.’s climate change summit, the President will also be travelling to Oslo, Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize hw was awarded earlier this fall. Since the award will be presented on December 10, it is safe to assume that the President will not be attending the entire Conference of Parties 15.
President Obama has received criticism from Greenpeace for attending the beginning of the Conference but not the end. Their criticism is largely centered upon the fact that the climate summit is an opportunity to create actual change and not just a “photo opportunity.”
