Obama to Skip Climate-Change Summit

President Obama will likely not attend the Copenhagen climate-change summit in December, opting instead to give an acceptance speech for his Nobel Peace Prize that will outline his environmental goals. Though the White House has yet to give a definitive response on Obama’s attendance, officials have privately said “Oslo is plenty close”—the Nobel ceremony takes place two days into the Copenhagen convention. Administration officials have, however, confirmed that Obama will be in Oslo to accept the prize and sources revealed it was “hard to see the benefit” of his attending the summit if there was no climate deal for him to close or sign. Obama will disappoint the foreign leaders who urged him to attend; they had hoped his presence would bring them closer to a comprehensive treaty. But a United Nations official said last week that the treaty is now an “unrealistic” prospect.