US brought developing countries together on climate deal: Barack Obama

Washington, Dec 19: Asserting that the historic Paris agreement on climate change would not have been achieved without American leadership, US President Barack Obama has said that his diplomacy brought countries like China, India and Brazil together on the agreement.

"When I went to Copenhagen, I essentially got engaged in 24 hours of diplomacy to salvage the basic principle that all countries had to participate, that we couldn't have a rigid division between developed and developing countries when it came to solving this problem," he said.

"Working with other countries, culminating in the joint announcement with China, bringing in India, Brazil and the other big, emerging nations, working with the Europeans and getting this done. This would not have happened without American leadership," the US President said.

Though the Paris agreement was not legally binding when it comes to the targets that had been set, Obama said it created an architecture around the world where countries are saying that this is where they are going with their climate change goals.

"We are going to be chasing after this clean energy future. This is how we are going to meet our goals. We are going to double down on solar power.

We are going to double down on wind power. We are going to invest more heavily in biofuels. We are going to figure out battery technologies," he said.

PTI