President Barack Obama will travel to an international summit on climate change in Denmark next month and promise lower American greenhouse gas emissions.
The pledge will commit the nation to a reduction of about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and of about 83 percent by 2050, according to White House officials.
Those goals are consistent with similar objectives contained in legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in June.
Congress has never enacted into law a bill that contains specific emission targets and the nation has never ratified any international treaty or agreement that includes them.
The president will speak at the gathering in Copenhagen on Dec. 9. He has been pressured by leaders of other nations and advocates for a more aggressive policy response to the growing threat of global warming to commit the United States to a defined set of goals for lowering the air pollution that causes the phenomenon.
The administration apparently also hopes that its willingness to promise emission reductions, something that last happened during the Clinton administration, will inspire other countries that are heavy polluters to make similar commitments.
“Obviously we hope other major economies will put forth ambitious action plans of their own,” Carol Browner, the president's chief advisor on climate change issues, said at a White House briefing Wednesday.
Delegates to the Copenhagen conference are not expected to complete work on a binding international treaty. An agreement among national leaders present at a summit of Pacific nations earlier this month commits the participants at the Denmark gathering only to a political statement relating to climate change.
The legislation approved in the House last spring seeks to achieve U.S. emission reductions by means of a cap and trade system, under which a market in permits allowing emission of greenhouse gases would be set up.
Similar legislation is pending in the Senate.
The president will be accompanied to Copenhagen by a raft of energy and environmental policy advisors and cabinet members, including Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa M. Jackson, secretary of energy Steven Chu, secretary of interior Ken Salazar, secretary of commerce Gary Locke, and secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack. Browner and Council on Environmental Quality chairperson Nancy Sutley will also represent the U.S. at the summit.
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