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Obama set to urge global action on climate change

WASHINGTON — Having spent political capital fighting climate change at home, United States President Barack Obama will turn his sights overseas next week, urging fellow heads of state to be as ambitious as possible as they negotiate a make-or-break global treaty to be finalised in Paris next year.

The UN talks are US President Barack Obama’s last major opportunity to leave his imprint 
on the climate change issue before his term ends. Photo: Reuters

The UN talks are US President Barack Obama’s last major opportunity to leave his imprint
on the climate change issue before his term ends. Photo: Reuters

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WASHINGTON — Having spent political capital fighting climate change at home, United States President Barack Obama will turn his sights overseas next week, urging fellow heads of state to be as ambitious as possible as they negotiate a make-or-break global treaty to be finalised in Paris next year.

Mr Obama will attend a United Nations climate summit on Tuesday, where he will announce new US commitments, aiming to ramp up the pressure on other major polluters such as India and China to demonstrate they are not laggards in the global campaign against climate change.

White House officials said the US will offer tangible contributions, such as American technology, to help vulnerable populations deal with food security, sea level rise and other negative effects of climate change.

“Our hope is that others will do the same and that can build momentum towards an agreement in Paris,” said Mr Dan Utech, the President’s top adviser on climate and energy issues.

Mr Obama had hoped to focus in his second term on legacy-making projects such as curbing climate change. But a dizzying array of global crises has competed for his attention, overshadowing many goals he had hoped to achieve.

Over only a few days at the UN, leaders will be wrangling with deep problems in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Israel, to name a few.

By taking time out at the UN for climate change, Mr Obama is working to keep the issue at the top of the global agenda even after the crises of the day recede from memory. More than 100 heads of state will join him at the summit, which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is hosting.

The last time Mr Obama gathered with so many leaders to discuss climate change was five years ago in Copenhagen, where a UN summit intended to yield a strong accord on emissions ended in failure. That outcome dampened hopes that developed and developing nations could come together to address climate change in any serious way before temperatures spiral out of control.

The US President cannot afford another failure next year. The talks already under way under the UN umbrella mark the last major opportunity for Mr Obama to leave his imprint on the global response to climate change before his term ends and another President takes over — potentially a Republican who would be less inclined to press the issue.

Officially, Tuesday’s one-day summit is not part of the negotiations for the 2015 agreement, set to take effect in 2020 and apply to all countries.

In the coming months, the US and other nations are expected to unveil their emission-reduction targets and there is serious concern that countries will not offer nearly enough to avert the worst effects of climate change.

There is also concern that Mr Obama, with his poll numbers sagging, lacks the political clout to get the Senate to ratify any such treaty — an obstacle that will become even greater if Republicans seize control of the chamber in November’s elections.

By convening heads of state now in front of cameras at the UN, rather than leaving it to lower-level negotiators at the very end, Mr Obama and UN organisers hope to increase the political pressure on leaders to set ambitious targets — especially reticent nations such as Australia and major polluters such as China and India.

The summit’s major take-away will be specific actions that world leaders are expected to announce as confidence-building measures towards an accord in Paris. Mr John Podesta, Mr Obama’s senior counsellor, said the US will offer to let other nations use scientific data and technical tools that its agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, have developed to boost local resilience to climate change.

Early in his presidency, Mr Obama set a goal to reduce US carbon dioxide emissions by 17 per cent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. With US lawmakers opposed to major climate legislation, he has sought to bypass Congress as much as possible. Republicans and even some Democrats have balked at unprecedented pollution limits the President has proposed for power plants.

But the White House said those and other actions have kept the US on track to meet Mr Obama’s 17 per cent goal — giving him more leverage when he presses other leaders to be just as bold. AP

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