Obama calls for greater protection of 'natural treasures'

President Barack Obama called for greater protection of US "natural treasures" today and touted America's clean energy record ahead of December's UN climate conference in Paris.
His remarks come one day after battle-weary diplomats left Bonn, Germany, where they endorsed rough outlines for a UN climate rescue pact to be inked at the summit.
The Bonn negotiations were the last official round before the November 30-December 11 Paris conference -- the culmination of half a dozen years of work since the ill-fated 2009 Copenhagen climate summit.
The UN climate pact, due to take effect in 2020, would be the first signed by virtually all the world's nations.

"Over the past six years, we've led by example, generating more clean energy and lowering our carbon emissions," Obama said in his weekly address to the nation.
"It gives us great momentum going into Paris this December, where the world needs to come together and build on these individual commitments with an ambitious, long-term agreement to protect this Earth for our kids," Obama said.

The president also hailed a pledge by dozens of major US companies to step up their own emissions reduction efforts.
In the same message, Obama called on Congress to breathe life back into a program meant to preserve the United States' natural resources, which was allowed to expire in early October.

"This month, even as Republicans in Congress barely managed to keep our government open, they shut down something called the Land and Water Conservation Fund," Obama said.
"For more than half a century, this fund has protected more than five million acres of land -- from playgrounds to parks to priceless landscapes -- all without costing taxpayers a dime," he said.
In August Obama traveled to Alaska, where he highlighted the impact of climate change and became the first sitting US president to visit the Alaskan Arctic.
"We're blessed with natural treasures -- from the Grand Tetons to the Grand Canyon; from lush forests and vast deserts to lakes and rivers teeming with wildlife," Obama said today.

"And it's our responsibility to protect these treasures for future generations, just as previous generations protected them for us.