Barack Obama to attend climate change summit

President Barack Obama will head to next month's Copenhagen climate summit to offer the first US plan to cut carbon emissions, officials said yesterday, reviving hopes the closely watched meeting will succeed.

The Obama administration offered to curb US emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020 - less than calls by the EU, Japan and UN scientists but the first numbers on the table by the world's largest economy.

"The President going to Copenhagen will give positive momentum to the negotiations and we think will enhance the prospects for success," Carol Browner, Mr Obama's top aide on climate policy, told reporters.

Mr Obama will address the meeting in Copenhagen on December 9, the day before he heads to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mike Froman, the deputy national security adviser, said Mr Obama decided to go after sensing progress in talks with China, India and other emerging economies, which rich nations are pressing to do more on global warming.

A carefully worded White House statement said Mr Obama was putting on the table the US offer "in the context of an overall deal in Copenhagen that includes robust mitigation contributions from China and the other emerging economies."

The White House said Mr Obama would lay out a longer term plan for a 30 per cent reduction of US emissions from 2005 levels by 2025, a 42 per cent reduction by 2030 and an 83 per cent cut by 2050.

Ms Browner said the near-term offer was "in the range" of 17 per cent depending on legislation in the deeply divided US Senate, which has delayed action on climate change until next year. Foreign leaders and environmentalists hailed Mr Obama's presence, hoping it would breathe new life into the December 7-18 conference meant to draft the successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, whose obligations expire in 2012.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said that if the US offer was clear-cut, it can "help pave the way for a successful outcome at Copenhagen."

But he also said that developed nations needed to come forward on another key part of negotiations - pledging financing to help poorer nations cope with climate change.

"If the President comes in the first week to announce that, it would be a major boost to the conference," said Mr de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in charge of the conference.