Obama vows U.S. will lead the way on climate change

Reporting from Los Angeles and L'Aquila, Italy -- President Obama praised efforts by industrialized and developing nations to set guidelines in the battle to control climate change and said today that the United States will increase its role in that fight.Speaking from Italy, where officials from 17 nations met and set the new targets, Obama warned that further steps would be needed and cautioned against those who would dismiss today's announced agreement, which fell short of what some environmentalists had hoped for but was a significant step from the policies of the Bush administration.

"We've made a good start, but I am the first one to acknowledge that on this issue it will not be easy," Obama said. "I think one of the things we will have to do is fight the temptation toward cynicism, to feel that the problem is so immense that somehow we cannot make significant strides."It is no small task for 17 leaders to bridge their differences on an issue like climate change," Obama said.The president spoke at the news conference after the forum that included key industrialized countries and developing economies such as Australia, India, China and South Korea. The countries represent more than three-quarters of emissions blamed for raising the world's temperature.
The group agreed to prevent the Earth's climate from rising by 2 degrees Celsius (about 3.6 degree Fahrenheit). That will entail a sharp cut in emissions by 2050, about 80% for industrialized nations and 50% for the developing world."Developed countries like my own have a historic responsibility to take the lead," Obama said. "We have the much larger carbon footprint per capita, and I know that sometimes the U.S. has fallen short of meeting our responsibilities.""Those days are over," Obama said."We don't expect to solve this problem in one meeting or in one summit," Obama said, adding that he believed some progress had been made."Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time," read the official statement by the 17 nations. "As leaders of the world's major economies, both developed and developing, we intend to respond vigorously to this challenge, being convinced that climate change poses a clear danger requiring an extraordinary global response."Among other things, the leaders agreed to establish a global carbon capture institute, charged with spurring large-scale research programs around the world. Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd predicted the initiative, to be based in his country, will speed the development of technology critical for reducing carbon emissions.In his comments after the meeting, Rudd said he welcomed the return of U.S. leadership on the climate front.Several nations also agreed to take the lead on particular technologies, including solar energy and advanced vehicles.The fact that developing nations balked at the plan reflects in part their contending political and economic needs, Obama suggested."Each of our nations comes to the table with different needs," said Obama. They want to make sure they don't have to sacrifice prosperity for progress on climate change, he said.The progress of the president's climate bill through Congress made it easier for Obama to push other nations on the climate-change measures, White House officials said."It strengthens our hand in those negotiations," press secretary Robert Gibbs said. The vote demonstrates "for the first time in many, many years our country's grave concern, shared by others in Europe . . . and how important that is to driving consensus.""We all have some skin in this game," said Gibbs."I'm not entirely sure that we expected to come here and have eight to 10 years of disagreement wash away in a couple of days in July in Italy. I think everybody understands that -- everybody understands that this is going to take some time."