Obama chooses pragmatism over theory in Copenhagen speech
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President Obama this morning laid out his plan for dealing with climate change in a speech in Copenhagen, his second major address this month in a foreign country. But unlike his lecture accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, today’s speech was pragmatic rather than theoretical.
It was a different audience today, a plenary session of world leaders rather than a local elite coming to celebrate an award. Still the speeches provide complementary glimpses of the same man trying to find a place on the world stage while defending American interests.
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Obama laid out his doctrine in foreign policy. He argued he is a national leader forced to fight terrorism in Afghanistan by escalating an 8-year-old war. There are just wars, he said, and Afghanistan was one such.
Obama also said he wanted to bridge the realist and idealist visions of international relations. So in addition to using force to make the United States safer, he also wanted to engage the world in combating problems such as poverty and ethnic strife.
In Copenhagen, it was a different approach. Gone was the theory, replaced by a call to action.
“The question, then, before us is no longer the nature of the challenge,” Obama said, “The question is our capacity to meet it. For while the reality of climate change is not in doubt, I have to be honest, as the world watches us today, I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now, and it hangs in the balance.
“I believe we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of a common threat. That’s why I come here today -- not to talk, but to act.”
Like in Oslo, Obama said he is acting in his capacity as the leader of his nation.
“We’re convinced, for our own self-interest, that the way we use energy, changing it to a more efficient fashion, is essential to our national security because it helps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and helps us deal with some of the dangers posed by climate change,” he said.
Because action was in the United States’ self-interest, Obama explained, he was prepared to act alone, if necessary.
“America is going to continue on this course of action to mitigate our emissions and to move toward a clean energy economy, no matter what happens here in Copenhagen,” Obama said, then arguing that collective action would be stronger. “We think it is good for us as well as good for the world. But we also believe that we will all be stronger, all be safer, all be more secure if we act together.”
Obama’s proposal is three-pronged: mitigation, transparency and financing. Major nations must put forward decisive actions to reduce emissions. There must be a transparent mechanism to monitor those actions, and there must be help for less-developed nations to cope with change.
Of course, those goals hinge on the political details, both internationally and domestically. At home, Republicans and some Democrats oppose the president’s cap-and-trade plans, and that will likely will be a major debate next year.
Internationally, nations have been unable to resolve their differences despite years of debate.
“We know the fault lines because we’ve been imprisoned by them for years,” Obama said. “These international discussions have essentially taken place now for almost two decades, and we have very little to show for it other than an increased acceleration of the climate change phenomenon.”
As always, Obama closed with an optimistic cry.
“It’s better for us to choose action over inaction, the future over the past,” Obama said. “And with courage and faith, I believe that we can meet our responsibility to our people, and the future of our planet.”
-- Michael Muskal
