Nahmyo Thomas
Newswire21.org

President Obama said the US is "determined" to find ways to reach an agreement during December's global warming summit in Copenhagen to reduce greenhouse gasses.

Giving his first UN speech at the Summit for Climate Change in New York, Obama laid out achievements and challenges for acting on climate change. The purpose of the meeting was to establish consensus before for the Copenhagen summit.

Some US allies expressed skepticism on the potential for Congress to reach a decision by then, but Obama showed confidence as he addressed 100 world leaders. "We are determined to act and we will meet our responsibility to future generations," he said.

Obama listed US achievements in cutting carbon emissions and promoting clean energy. The US is spending billions to capture carbon pollution from coal plants and generate offshore wind energy projects.

The president admitted that meeting goals of greenhouse emission reductions will be a challenge during the country's economic downturn. The target goal for the US is to return to 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

"The threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing," he said. "Our generation's response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it - boldly, swiftly, and together - we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe."

Obama's determination to make climate change and the environment a top priority during his administration contrasts the policies of the Bush administration, which failed to come to support the accords reached at the Kyoto conference in 2005.

Biggest Polluters
Without US commitment other leading polluters such as India and China will be deterred from making substantial emission reductions. The effects of global warming cannot be scaled down if China and the US don't set strong standards, because each generates about 20 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas pollution.

"The crisis today on climate change is the inability of the United States to put on the table credible emissions-reduction targets for 2020," said Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister. China and India have both announced ambitious national climate change plans, with China expected to become the front-runner in the climate change fight.

The summit also added pressure for rich nations to pay for underdeveloped nations to preserve their forests and burn less coal. Citing various natural catastrophes, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, declared that "the science leaves us with no room for inaction now." Obama agreed that this responsibility fell on richest countries, but that developing countries must also "do their part."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also warned that "failure to reach broad agreement in Copenhagen would be morally inexcusable, economically short-sighted and politically unwise."