Disappointment at the outcome of a United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Copenhagen is "justified," US President Barack Obama said in a US television interview.
"I think that people are justified in being disappointed about the outcome in Copenhagen," he told the PBS Newshour programme.
"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."
The climate change conference held over the past two weeks in the Danish capital ended Friday with a non-binding agreement that skeptical observers say is unlikely to limit emissions sufficiently to halt global warming.
"The science says that we've got to significantly reduce emissions over the next 40 years. There's nothing in the Copenhagen agreement that ensures that that happens," Obama acknowledged.
The US leader, who traveled to the summit in its final days to push for a comprehensive agreement, said the deal established an "important principle" but also admitted: "It didn't move us the way we need to."
He said the agreement was hard to win, and came after talks nearly broke down entirely. "The prime minister of India was heading to the airport and the Chinese representatives were essentially skipping negotiations," he said.
