PM sets Copenhagen date,to attend meet on Dec 18

On Friday,the White House had announced a change in plans for Obama who had originally planned to go to Copenhagen on December 9,on his way to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The White House said Obama,encouraged by the recent decisions of India and China to set targets to slow down their emissions,had rescheduled his visit to Copenhagen and decided to attend the Heads of States meeting on December 18.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is also slated to attend the December 7-18 meeting though his dates are yet to be announced.

The decision by Manmohan Singh and Obama is the latest positive signal for the Copenhagen climate summit and raised hopes for a comprehensive agreement. The last few weeks have seen a number of forward movements after months of deadlock in the climate negotiations that threatened to derail the widely-anticipated summit that is expected to come up with an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Just two days ago,Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told Parliament that India would cut down its carbon intensity—the amount of carbon dioxide released per unit of GDP—by 20-25 per cent by the year 2020 over 2005 levels. It was the first time that India announced some sort of quantified target to reduce its emissions—even though indirectly and only as a domestic commitment—and followed a similar decision taken by China a few

days ago.

Manmohan Singh’s decision to go to Copenhagen had been hanging for a few days now,mainly because neither Obama nor Wen Jiabao had confirmed their presence at the December 18 meeting. Sources said the Prime Minister was not entirely certain whether there was any objective of the world leaders in going to Copenhagen without having the opportunity to meet each other and lend their combined weight to the success of the meeting.