US President Barack Obama is likely to attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, former US Vice President Al Gore has told SPIEGEL in an interview. Gore said he is optimistic the US Congress will agree an outline of climate legislation before the conference, allowing Obama to head to the Danish capital with "a more substantive position."
Obama will be in neighboring Norway, to accept his Nobel Peace Prize -- which he won in part for his focus on climate destabilization -- right at the start of the top climate meeting, COP-15, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Obama went to Copenhagen last month in an attempt to secure the 2012 Olympics for Chicago, raising expectations regarding COP-15: if he went to get the Olympics, surely he will go to get a climate treaty to stabilize global climate?
As Joe Romm at Climate Progress put it at the time:
If Obama is going to Copenhagen to push Chicago’s Olympic bid this week, he has to go in December to push a climate deal, yes?
Success in December — not a final deal, of course, but moving the ball forward to achieve such a deal next year — ensures that Obama is not seen as a failed president historically and that he is not viewed as a failure internationally for however long he is president.
One week ago, The Times Online claimed Obama would not be going to Copenhagen and even included a snarky nonsense comment supposedly from administration officials along the lines that "Oslo is plenty close."
Back to Der Spiegel:
Gore also expressed optimism that the US Congress would agree on the outline of climate legislation before the December 7-18 conference, which is aimed at finding a new global pact on cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions.