President Obama’s speech to the United Nations is a clear indication that the United States cannot deliver at the United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December until the health reform is in place.

And as long as President Obama’s health reform package remains to be passed by Congress, the United States will not enter into any climate agreement, according to Copenhagen University’s expert in American politics Mads Fuglede.

“There are two things that fill the American debate right now – health reform and the financial crisis. Nobody over here is talking about climate,” says Fuglede, who is currently in the United States.

“Obama isn’t promising too much. He is doing what we can expect him to. He’s full of good intentions, but doesn’t promise to live up to any demands,” says Fuglede.

Home front
Obama’s speech showed his difficulties in forcing a climate agreement through Congress and the fact that he has many domestic issues to attend to.

During his news conference in New York, Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen made no bones of the fact that Obama is facing difficult challenges.

“Even a blind man can see that Obama is politically challenged at home, but his speech leaves no doubt at all that he has a strong personal involvement in climate issues. And the fact that the United States has again entered the international climate negotiations can be ascribed to him,” says Løkke Rasmussen.

Face
Fuglede, however says Obama lost face as a result of his speech.

“He lost face in relation to Europe and the rest of the world. What he really said was: ‘You’ll get nothing from me before I have managed the health reform,” Fuglede says.

He adds that given the current situation in the United States, an agreement in Copenhagen in December is unlikely – at least not an agreement that the United States can agree to.

“The United States cannot deliver in Copenhagen as things stand. If Obama has to choose between health reform and climate, he’ll choose health reform 100 percent of the time,” says Fuglede. He adds that the costs to the American economy of health reform and the financial crisis are simply too astronomical to also provide funds for a climate agreement.

“It’s a shame for Denmark, but the Copenhagen summit is too close to the health reform to enable the United States to deliver. Americans don’t care two hoots about climate,” Fuglede says, adding however that if Obama’s health reform passes Congress before December, it may be possible that an agreement could b reached.

But chances are very slim, he concludes.