Barack Obama has thrown his weight behind a deal on climate change by announcing he will attend the Copenhagen summit with a pledge for a 17 per cent cut in US emissions.
The US president's pledge removes one of the final obstacles to a deal, as other developed countries have already announced their targets to cut emissions by 2020. It was less ambitious, however, than similar targets from most other wealthy nations and fell short of environmental groups' hopes.
Mr Obama will attend the early stages of the two-week conference – on December 9 – more than a week before other world leaders arrive on December 17, creating a diplomatic quandary.