Obama will attend climate change conference in Paris

President Obama said Wednesday he will indeed to go to Paris, site of last week’s horrific terrorist attacks, in early December — to attend a long-planned climate change conference in which he’s expected to have a starring role.

“In Paris, just two weeks from now, we have to come together on an ambitious framework” to reduce carbon emissions, Mr. Obama said at an economic summit in the Philippines. “I’m optimistic that we can get an outcome we can all be proud of.”

The president has been aiming at the Paris conference as the culmination of his legacy-building efforts to lead a global campaign to reduce greenhouse gases.

In his formal remarks to the APEC CEO summit in Manila, Mr. Obama didn’t mention the terrorist attacks in Paris, instead sticking to his theme of urging business leaders to reduce greenhouse gases and switch to renewable energy. He met earlier with Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged him to shift Russia’s military actions in Syria to target Islamic State extremists, saying the Russians are going after the wrong targets in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

If Russia’s targets in Syria change, Mr. Obama said, then he would welcome the Russians into a more robust, cooperative effort with the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

“If in fact he shifts his focus and the focus of his miltiary, to what is the principle threat, which is ISIL, then that is what we want to see,” Mr. Obama said.