Leadership or Photo Op?

President Obama will bring targets for cutting carbon emissions in the United States, but not binding legislation, when he goes to Copenhagen December 9 for the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The White House announced today that the president would attend the Copenhagen conference. He decided to go, according to the announcement, because the president believes there’s a chance to reach a “meaningful agreement” there that would produce a “concerted effort” to reduce carbon emissions around the world and “serve as a stepping stone to a legally binding treaty.”

Assuming that China and other emerging economies agree to reduce their carbon emissions, the president said the United States will reduce its carbon emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

That’s in line with the carbon cap-and-trade bill passed by the House in June, which calls for a 42 percent reduction by 2030. The Senate, however, is bogged down in health care reform and shows no signs of taking up its own cap-and-trade bill anytime soon.

Obama will be making promises to the world that he might not be able to keep.

The president could have skipped Copenhagen, but that would have made the Nobel Peace Prize he will receive in Oslo December 10 ring hollow. In announcing Obama’s selection for the award, the Nobel committee said Obama had created “a new climate in international politics” that emphasizes “a global response to global challenges.” It would be hard for Obama to accept this award if he blew off the most important international gathering on the most important issue facing the planet: global warming.

The president already faces a credibility issue on the whole “peace” thing, anyway. A week before heading for Copenhagen and Oslo, Obama will travel to the U.S. Military Academy, where he is expected to announce plans to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Obama’s decision to go to Copenhagen and set a target for reducing carbon emissions in the United States was praised by senators who are working on getting the 60 votes needed to pass cap-and-trade legislation.

“This could be a hell of a global game changer with big reverberations here at home,” said Senator John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat. “It lays the groundwork for a broad political consensus at Copenhagen that will strip climate obstructionists here at home of their most persistent charge, that the United States shouldn’t act if other countries won’t join with us.”

“Without such American leadership, there will be no progress in stopping the advance of global warming,” said Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, one of the Senate's two independent members.

Obama, however, is only spending part of one day in Copenhagen. He won’t be there for the final days of the two-week conference. That’s when any global agreement on reducing carbon emissions, if there is one, will be hashed out. That’s when “American leadership” will be needed the most.

Other Obama administration officials will be on hand for these crucial sessions, and they’ll set up a “U.S. Center” at the conference.

That won’t make up for Obama’s absence, wrote Ben Webster, the environment editor of The Times in London, who dismissed Obama’s stop in Copenhagen as a photo opportunity.

“Visiting the center will be like queuing for Santa’s grotto, only to find the man with the white beard had gone home and left his elves to dole out the presents,” he wrote.