WASHINGTON — Putting his prestige on the line, President Barack Obama will personally, at next month’s Copenhagen climate summit, commit the U.S. to a goal of substantially cutting greenhouse gases. He will insist that America is ready to tackle global warming despite resistance in Congress over higher costs for businesses and homeowners.
Obama will attend the start of the conference Dec. 9 before heading to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. He will “put on the table” a U.S. commitment to cut emissions by 17 percent over the next decade on the way to reducing heat- trapping pollution by 80 percent by midcentury, the White House said.
Cutting U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions by one-sixth in a decade would be likely to hike energy bills, but the administration says there would be important health trade-offs.
Carol Browner, Obama’s assistant for energy and climate change, cited a $173-per-year estimated cost in a briefing Wednesday — a figure for a family of four calculated by the Congressional Budget Office.
Republicans say costs would be higher.
But slashing carbon-dioxide emissions could save millions of lives, mostly by reducing preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases, according to studies published this week in The Lancet British medical journal.
The White House said Obama’s decision to attend the international conference in Denmark was “a sign of his continuing commitment and leadership to find a global solution to the global threat of climate change.”
But Obama’s stopover on the conference’s second day — instead of later when negotiations will be most intense and when most other national leaders will take part — disappointed some European and U.N. climate officials, as well as some environmentalists.
Others said Obama’s personal appeal will resonate with the delegates from more than 75 countries and help reset the U.S. image on the climate issue after eight years in which the Bush administration staunchly opposed mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases.
Yvo de Boer, the United Nations climate chief, said it is important for the United States to establish emissions-reduction targets and a financial commitment to help developing countries address climate change.
The White House said it will send a half-dozen Cabinet secretaries to the talks, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, as well as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which is preparing regulations to cut greenhouse gases.
The high-profile delegation is intended to reinforce Obama’s stance.
