Obama calls disappointment with Copenhagen ‘justified’

President Obama on Wednesday said disappointment with the outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks is “justified” but nonetheless called the limited international agreement he helped broker an important step forward.

Obama last week reached a non-binding agreement with nations including China and India, but it fell far short of what many climate change activists and negotiators were seeking from the talks.

“What I said was essentially that rather than see a complete collapse in Copenhagen, in which nothing at all got done and would have been a huge backward step, at least we kind of held ground and there wasn't too much backsliding from where we were,” Obama said in an interview with PBS's "Newshour.”

Obama acknowledged that the agreement does not ensure the level of global greenhouse gas emissions cuts in coming decades that climate scientists call necessary. But he added that the talks nearly collapsed before the limited deal was reached.

“What did occur was that at a point where there was about to be complete breakdown, and the prime minister of India was heading to the airport and the Chinese representatives were essentially skipping negotiations, and everybody's screaming, what did happen was, cooler heads prevailed,” Obama said.

“And we were able to at least agree on non-legally binding targets for all countries - not just the United States, not just Europe, but also for China and India, which, projecting forward, are going to be the world's largest emitters,” he added. He called this an important confirmation that “everybody’s got to do something in order to solve this problem.”

Obama also said his “main responsibility” is to convince the American people that boosting low-carbon energy sources like wind and solar in the U.S. will create jobs and help the economy, while addressing climate change in the process.