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 18 December 2009
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US and others commit to carbon cuts while Copenhagen negotiations continue

18/12/2009

Global leaders at the Copenhagen Summit on Friday have agreed to national actions and commitments but failed to reach a legally binding agreement.

World leaders negotiate at Copenhagen

World leaders negotiate at Copenhagen

US President Barack Obama commended developing countries who voluntarily offered up mitigation targets to break a deadlock that was paralyzing the climate negotiations.

Barack Obama says it is important that the carbon being taken out of the environment is not simply dumped back in by other parties. And for that, everyone has to do their part.

"It is still going to require more work, and more confidence building and greater trust between emerging countries, the least developed countries and the developed countries, before I think you are going to see another legally binding treaty signed. I actually think that it is necessary for us, ultimately, to get to such a treaty, and I am supportive of such efforts. But, this is a classic example of a situation of where if we just waited for that, then we would not make any progress."

Obama told reporters that he has put forward some legislation to be debated in Congress in order to reduce his country's carbon footprint.

The US President left before the final vote, but said he felt confident that the talks were moving in the direction of a significant accord.

Jocelyne Sambira, United Nations Radio
(duration: 1'20")

Sound bites

US President Barack Obama Cut 1

"It is still going to require more work, and more confidence building and greater trust between emerging countries, the least developed countries and the developed countries, before I think you are going to see another legally binding treaty signed. I actually think that it is necessary for us, ultimately, to get to such a treaty, and I am supportive of such efforts, but this is a classic example of a situation of where if we just waited for that, then we would not make any progress."
Duration: 00:00:33

US President Barack Obama Cut 2

"It's going to be necessary, if we're going to meet those targets, for some changes to take place among those countries. It's not enough just for the developed countries to make changes. Those countries are going to have to make some changes as well. Not at the same pace. Not in the same way. But, they're going to have to do something to assure that whatever carbon we're taking out of the environment is not just simply dumped in by other parties."
Duration: 00:00:22

US President Barack Obama Cut 3

"Ultimately, this issue is going to be dictated by the science, and the science indicates that we're going to have to take more aggressive steps in the future. Our hope is that by investing in clean energy, in research, in development in innovation that in the same way that the Clean Air Act ended up spurring all kinds of innovations that solved the acid rain problem at a much cheaper and much more rapid pace than we expected."
Duration: 00:00:28

US President Barack Obama Cut 4

"We tried to be modest in what we thought we could accomplish. I think there was interest on the part of some to, for example, increase our mitigation targets. Although when you look out in the years 2025 or 2030, our goals are actually entirely comparable with Europe's. On the front end, they appear to be less, because, frankly, they've had a head start over the last several years in doing things like energy efficiency that we care about. What I said to the other people in the room is that I want to make sure that whatever it is that we promise we can actually deliver on."
Duration: 00:00:35