President Barack Obama"s top aides promised on Wednesday to work to reach agreement on dealing with climate change as they arrived at an international environmental meeting in Copenhagen, according to Reuters. "We are seeking robust engagement with all of our partners around the world," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said at a press conference. Speaking just days after her agency announced that it intends for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, Jackson declared: "We are seeking to prevent the rapid approach of climate change." Another high-ranking Obama administration official, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, was also in Denmark, touring an off-shore Danish wind farm. Obama himself originally intended to arrive in Copenhagen on Wednesday, early into the Dec. 7-18 summit. But with developed countries like the United States, the second largest carbon polluter, and developing countries like China, the leading emitter, urgently pushing for a political deal, Obama changed plans and will arrive here towards the end of the talks, when dealmaking typically peaks. Over the past two days, Chinese officials attending the Copenhagen meeting have been highly critical of the U.S. offer to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in the range of 17 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels. China"s top climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, told Reuters he hoped Obama can offer a tougher target in Copenhagen. But that could be difficult for the U.S. president because Congress so far has failed to embrace any specific goals. Jackson, asked to respond to China"s criticisms, refused to comment. The economic recession in the United States that has pushed unemployment above 10 percent has dampened enthusiasm for climate change legislation, which could raise consumer prices as industries are gradually forced to switch from fossil fuels like coal and oil to more expensive alternative energy sources. In the short term, the recession has cut U.S. gas emissions, putting the country on track to reach Obama"s short-term emissions goals, but cutting pollution further will take more effort as the economy recovers. Jackson said that when Obama administration officials return to Washington, they will work to encourage Congress, specifically the Senate where legislation is stalled, to pass a climate change law that would be more comprehensive than the regulations EPA could craft. Mindful of the tough times, however, Jackson opened her remarks to reporters and a group of business and environmental officials saying: "None of our nations have been immune to the global financial crisis or the economic downturn that followed." She added that EPA regulations to reduce carbon emissions would not place undue "burdens" on U.S. companies.
