President Obama will attend the high-level climate change "summit" that the United Nations plans to hold in New York on September 23, the White House said on Friday. The summit falls during the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting as well as the yearly Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York, which both attract world leaders.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will lead the summit, which aims to build momentum toward a new global climate treaty when negotiators meet a year later in Paris. The U.N. has also invited other leaders, including mayors of cities worldwide and business interests, to attend the meeting and make new commitments to addressing global warming.
Obama's announcement may put pressure on other world leaders to participate, especially Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is the top greenhouse gas emitter in the world, as well as the leaders of India and Brazil, two other key developing nations whose emissions are increasing.
Obama has sought to make tackling climate change part of his legacy bysetting a goal to cut U.S. emissions 17% by 2020, compared to 2005 levels, among other actions.
In June the White House announced new draft EPA rules that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants to 30% below 2005 levels by 2020.
The proposed rules, dubbed the "Clean Power Plan," are based on the White House's executive powers under the Clean Air Act. They are the biggest step ever taken by any U.S. president to reduce the U.S. contribution to global warming, which is largely due to manmade emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.