United States President Barack Obama has for the first time announced that he will attend the United Nations' climate change top in Copenhagen, which will be held from 7 until 18 December. Today it was announced that the US president will attend the summit on 9 December, a day before he is scheduled to travel to the Norwegian capital Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. However, Mr Obama will not return to the summit after accepting the prize to attend talks between world leaders.

The United States has announced that it will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 in comparison with 2005. The European Union has promised to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent vis-à-vis 1990, in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol, which the US refused to sign. On Tuesday the United Nations' senior negotiator on climate change, the Dutch diplomat Yvo de Boer, called on the EU to raise its goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions vis-à-vis 1990 by 30 percent.

Since US emissions have risen by 15 percent since 1990, the pledge of a 17 percent reduction starting from 2005 would result in a reduction of only few percent since 1990. Washington, however, says its reductions in comparison to 2005 will drop by 30 percent by 2025 and 42 percent by 2030.

On Monday, the UN agency on global warming announced that greenhouse gas emissions are still rising and have reached record levels.

Jökulsárlón Lake in Iceland has doubled in size due to extreme glacial melting
Photo by Wikimedia Commons