Obama brushes off GOP threats to climate efforts

At a news conference on the second full day of the talks, Obama said that the United States was obligated to participate in efforts to reach a global agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions “because this one trend, climate change, affects all trends.”

Obama’s stand won praise from those who want a strong agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

Obama made his remarks hours before Congress was to reconvene, and the Republican majority in the House was expected to send a signal to negotiators from the nearly 200 nations gathered here that it did not support the president’s climate-change policies.

The House was expected to pass two bills blocking Obama’s major initiatives on climate change, a set of Environmental Protection Agency rules to push energy providers away from coal-fired power plants.

Obama dismissed concern that Republicans would be able to make good on their pledge to block the United States from fulfilling financial pledges meant to help developing nations transition their economies so that they are less dependent on fossil fuels.