Obama was originally scheduled to attend the Dec. 7-18 summit on Dec. 9, before traveling to nearby Oslo to collect his Nobel Peace prize.
Some European officials and environmental groups had expressed surprise at his initial decision, pointing out that most of the hard bargaining on cutting greenhouse gas emissions was likely to take place at the climax of the summit, when dozens of other world leaders are also due to attend.
+ACI-Based on his conversations with other leaders and the progress that has already been made to give momentum to negotiations, the president believes that continued U.S. leadership can be most productive through his participation at the end of the Copenhagen conference on December 18th rather than on December 9th,+ACI- the White House said in a statement.
The United States will pledge in Copenhagen to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
