By Jeff Mason
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama urged world leaders on Friday to "act together" on an accord to fight climate change, but he did not offer new U.S. commitments to cut emissions that some see as crucial to a deal.
Obama, addressing his counterparts at Copenhagen, reiterated the U.S. offers, called for transparency from other countries in how their emissions curbs are checked, and said the United States would continue to fight global warming regardless of what happened at the summit in Denmark.
"I believe we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of a common threat. That's why I come here today - not to talk, but to act," he said to applause.
"As the world's largest economy and as the world's second largest emitter, America bears our responsibility to address climate change, and we intend to meet that responsibility."
The United States has offered to cut its greenhouse gas emissions roughly 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels or 3 percent from 1990 levels.
Those goals correspond to legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, and Obama -- who is eager to turn the bill into a law -- did not offer more aggressive targets.
He acknowledged that deal texts circulating in Copenhagen were not perfect and did not give every country what it wanted, but he said that should not prevent a deal from being reached.
"There is no time to waste. America has made our choice. We have charted our course, we have made our commitments, we will do what we say," he said. "I believe it's the time for the nations and the people of the world to come together behind a common purpose. We are ready to get this done today. But there has to be movement on all sides."
With a nod to lawmakers back in Washington, Obama said the United States would push ahead with its efforts to fight climate change even if the Copenhagen talks failed.
"America is going to continue on this course of action to mitigate our emissions and to move toward a clean energy economy no matter what happens here in Copenhagen," he said.
Some environmentalists criticized his remarks.
"This speech appears to be more of a face-saving exercise for President Obama than an attempt to unite countries around a truly planet-saving agreement," said Friends of the Earth U.S. President Erich Pica in a statement.
"The U.S. has failed to significantly improve upon the weak position it brought to these talks."
(editing by Janet McBride)
