Will Obama return to Copenhagen?

For the first time the White House has admitted that it does not expect to see a climate bill this year. This has raised doubts about how strongly the Obama administration will press the Senate for a climate bill when they are in the middle of the struggle over health care. And yet Obama received already severe criticism last month when he failed to urge the Senate to act during his speech to the United Nations summit on climate change. Environmental organizations called it a missed opportunity. When at the beginning of December nations gather in Copenhagen to reach an agreement to avoid the effects of global warming, negotiators admit that if the US does not bring the climate change bill to summit it will be harder to reach an international agreement. Incoming COP15 (fifteenth conference of the parties) president, Connie Hedegaard, Danish Minister for Climate and Energy has said: “If the whole world comes to Copenhagen and leaves without making the needed political agreement, then I think it’s a failure that is not just about climate. Then it’s the whole global democratic system not being able to deliver results in one of the defining challenges of our century. And that is and should not be a possibility. It’s not an option.”
There is also the question of which leaders will be present. While British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already pledged to be there saying that he will go to Copenhagen to conclude the deal, there is no word so far on whether Obama will attend. Considering the possible absence of a climate change bill and the lack of any plan from the US to help developing countries meet the costs associated with a climate crisis they did not create, it would not be surprising that the president might prefer to avoid a trip to Copenhagen. On the other hand he and his administration might think twice about this trip. If the president skips Copenhagen after making what turned out to be an wasted trip to the same city to promote the Olympics last week, it would indicate to the world a total lack of commitment to battling global warming. Let us hope he gets good advice and he heeds it.