Obama Going to UN Climate Summit in September

President Obama says he's going to attend the UN climate summit in New York City this September 23rd. That's good in its own right

The Secretary-General has asked world leaders to come to the Summit to announce bold actions that they will be taking in their countries, especially in several high-impact areas, such as climate finance; energy efficiency; renewable energy; adaptation; disaster risk reduction and resilience; forests; agriculture; transportation; short-lived climate pollutants; and cities. There will also be announcements from a number of multi-stakeholder initiatives—initiatives that engage coalitions of governments, businesses and civil society organizations–that have high potential to catalyze ambitious action in these same areas.

and also because it might pressure other world leaders to attend and make announcements of mitigation strategies and projects, as Andrew Freedman writes at Mashable:

Obama's announcement may put pressure on other world leaders to participate, especially Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is the top greenhouse gas emitter in the world, as well as the leaders of India and Brazil, two other key developing nations whose emissions are increasing.

It's kind of a shame that I feel surprised (and, not least, a bit proud) that the President of the United States finally takes the climate issue seriously enough to participate in a global meeting.