Obama May Attend Global Climate Talks in Copenhagen

President Obama may attend the global climate negotiations this December in Copenhagen, where negotiators will try to craft the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said. If he goes, Obama would be the first U.S. president to attend major international climate talks since President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Just weeks after he was elected, Obama proposed that the U.S. reduce CO2 emissions by 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of a U.N. treaty. While some experts have warned against expecting too much of the U.S. because of the struggling economy, Obama, traveling in Germany, said he was hopeful about the prospects of forging a new climate treaty. “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.