Obama announced today that he will be traveling to Copenhagen for the climate change discussions after numerous complaints from other countries and environmentalists about his lack of committment to climate change. He will be arriving to the talks early on in the two week period, on Dec 9, which will hopefully create more movement in the discussions during the beginning stages, rather than waiting for the last day or two as often happens.

In addition, Obama has announced some targets for greenhouse gas emissions, despite the Senate not acting on the current bill.

"Mr. Obama will offer to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020, a 30 per cent reduction by 2025 and a 42 per cent drop by 2030, the White House said." (Times Online)

Obama's suggested targets are based on previous figures outlined in the House and Senate during the past year.

"In June, the House passed a bill calling for greenhouse gas reductions of 17 percent below 2005 levels. Last month, a Senate committee passed a measure calling for a 20 percent cut, but that is expected to be weakened as the legislation moves through other Senate committees and onto the floor, perhaps next spring." (New York Times)

This will hopefully put more pressure on countries like China and India to also put significant targets on their reduction levels. Only two weeks to go, we'll see where things go from here.