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Obama 'optimistic' US can lead

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DRESDEN, Germany (AFP) – President Barack Obama said Friday he was increasingly hopeful that the United States can lead the way on climate change, six months before crunch global talks in Copenhagen.

 

"I'm actually more optimistic than I was about America being able to take leadership on this issue, joining Europe, which over the last several years has been ahead of us on this issue," Obama said after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany.

 

"We are seeing progress in Congress around energy legislation that would set up for the first time in the United States a cap and trade system. That process is moving forward in ways that I think if you had asked political experts two or three months ago would have seemed impossible."

 

Countries from around the world will meet in the Danish capital Copenhagen in December for a UN conference that aims to produce an ambitious, new climate pact aimed at rolling back global warming.

 

Talks are currently going on in Bonn, Germany, thrashing out a draft of a negotiating text for the new pact meant to take effect from the end of 2012, spelling out curbs on emissions by 2020 that will be deepened by 2050.

 

Agreeing a new pact has been slowed by squabbling between rich, developed countries like the United States which want poorer, emerging giants like China and India to join them in making firm commitments to curb carbon emissions.

 

With the world's largest economy, the United States has historically been the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that are blamed for climate change.

 

Recently however it has been overtaken by China, although the average American still produces far more emissions than the average Chinese or Indian.

 

"Ultimately the world is going to need targets that it can meet. It can't be general, vague approaches," Obama said after his talks with Merkel.

 

"We're going to have to make some tough decisions and take concrete actions if we are going to deal with a potentially cataclysmic disaster."

 

He added: "Unless the United States and Europe, with our large carbon footprints, per capita carbon footprints, are willing to take some decisive steps, it's going to be very difficult for us to persuade countries that on a per capita basis at least are still much less wealthy, like China or India, to take the steps that they're going to need to take."

 

"So we are very committed to working together and hopeful that we can arrive in Copenhagen having displayed that commitment in concrete ways."

 

Last month the US House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a draft climate change bill. The measure must now be taken up by congressional panels before facing a full House vote and being sent to the Senate.

 

The bill aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. This falls short of a European Union pledge to cut its own carbon pollution by 20 percent by 2020, and deepen this to 30 percent if another rich economy plays ball.

 

Merkel said: "We very much welcome the very, very hard work that the United States has done in order to see to it that the necessary answers are found for this phenomenon of climate change."

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