A warning to delegates in Copenhagen: If you're looking for President Barack Obama to cave to pressure and deepen US efforts to curb greenhouse gases, don't bet on it.
Obama, like most world leaders, is constrained by tough politics at home. And that makes it tougher for the summit to produce meaningful pollution cuts.
US officials stressed Wednesday that when Obama travels to the climate conference in Denmark this week he won't bring anything to the talks beyond Washington's already stated goals: to commit to reducing greenhouse gases by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and to pay a "fair share" into a 10 billion US dollars fund to help developing countries deal with climate change.
Developing countries have called on the United States and Europe to make much deeper cuts in the short term — by at least 34 percent from 2005 emission levels by 2020. Those are reductions far beyond what members of Congress — even those supporting climate legislation — say they will accept.
