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WASHINGTON – With global climate change talks at a critical juncture, President Barack Obama flew to Copenhagen on Thursday to join more than 110 other world leaders looking to push an interim agreement across the end line.

Obama will be on hand for the final day of the two-week, 193-nation U.N. climate conference. But U.S.-China acrimony, a bitter divide between rich and poor nations and dissatisfaction with the U.S. emissions-reduction pledge clouded prospects for any agreement.

Sending presidents across the ocean to spend capital and time on an undetermined outcome is unusual. Schedules for foreign trips and international leader gatherings are usually set in advance in excruciating detail. Agreements are nearly always inked ahead of time, with all but the signatures filled in.

Not so for this trip.

Not only was it unclear as Obama set off what the conference would produce, it wasn’t certain how the president would spend his approximately nine hours there Friday. He was attending plenary sessions, and expected to hold some one-on-one sideline talks. But much of his time was purposely left fluid, and his brief remarks to the assembly were barely in draft stage before he departed.

This high-stakes jaunt is eerily similar to Obama’s first Copenhagen trip, when he unsuccessfully appealed for the 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in his adopted hometown of Chicago.

Then, he also arrived after an overnight flight from Washington and left later that day. The trip was more scripted, with a plotted itinerary and presentation. But it carried no advance promise of excellent news, and produced none. Rio de Janeiro won the day.

Obama didn’t choose until late November to attend the climate talks. Doubt that he would go had increased after it became clear the conference would not produce a binding international climate treaty. Deemed too hard a lift, leaders shifted the goal to producing a framework for a more formal agreement later.

Obama initially said he would stop in during the conference’s opening days. That way, his appearance would come on his own terms, with less hazard. But he abruptly changed his mind just before the conference started Dec. 7, deciding instead to go on the last day, when most other leaders would be there.

That choice was more consistent with Obama’s campaign promise to provide bold leadership on climate change. It also significantly increased the political risk.

Obama now is more vulnerable to being blamed for any failure. He could end the year with a glaring “incomplete” on yet another signature priority. He could make it even harder to pass hard-fought climate legislation precariously pending in Congress. He could be seen as weak if putting his prestige on the line fails to bring results — again.

“You go there to have conversation and sometimes dreadful things happen,” said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution who has been a consultant, adviser and speechwriter to presidents dating back to Dwight D. Eisenhower. “It depends how often it happens, how it’s perceived by the press, the public and other nations, as well as the president’s enemies.”

Thursday’s offer from the U.S. to help raise $100 billion a year starting in 2020 to get poorer nations started on converting to clean energy and recovering from climate hurt offered some hope. China responded by going some way to meet a firm U.S. demand that Beijing and other developing economies make cuts in emissions growth that are open to international verification.

But White House advisers still openly talked of the possibility the conference could end up a bust. “Coming back with an empty agreement would be far worse than coming back empty-handed,” presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday. That kind of lowering of expectations could be an attempt to inoculate Obama from the fallout, or a negotiating ploy to scare recalcitrant nations into making moves of their own.

There has been much hope in Copenhagen that Obama would arrive with a new proposal and salvage the talks. That’s not likely.

For one thing, the U.S. emissions-reduction commitment purposely mirrors the legislation before Congress, which calls for 17 percent reduction in pollution from 2005 levels by 2020 — the equivalent of 3 to 4 percent from 1990 levels and only a tiny fraction of offers from the European Union, Japan and Russia.

Even that target was hard-won in a skittish Congress, and Obama has chose he can’t go further without potentially souring final passage of the bill, approved in the House but not yet considered in the Senate. He also could imperil eventual Senate ratification of any global treaty that emerges next year.

Obama also will not be putting a specific dollar amount on Washington’s promised “honest share” contribution into a small-term, $10 billion-a-year fund for developing countries, said a White House official involved in the talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to more freely describe the administration’s thinking.

PUYALLUP, Wash. – Police searched the home of a missing Utah mother on Thursday as family members held a tearful news conference in which they expressed their sadness that the husband has been named a person of interest in the investigation.

Susan Powell, a 28-year-ancient mother of two young children, was reported missing Dec. 7 when she didn’t show up for her stockbroker job at a bank. She was last seen a day earlier.

Her husband, Josh Powell, said he went camping with the couple’s boys, ages 2 and 4, in subfreezing temperatures in the middle of the night Dec. 7 and returned in the evening.

West Valley City Police Capt. Tom McLachlan on Thursday said the 4-year-ancient boy was interviewed within “a day or two” after his mother was reported missing. The son told police his family went camping — an event his father has said coincided with her disappearance.

“I reckon the verification of the camping trip is vital to the timeline on this,” McLachlan said, cautioning against placing too much importance on the child’s statement.

Meanwhile Thursday, Susan Powell’s family members held a news conference in Washington state, where her parents live.

Eight members of Susan Powell’s family were present, including her mother, two sisters, grandparents and a brother-in-law. As family friend and spokeswoman Shelby Gifford spoke about Powell’s life, several members broke down in tears and embraced each other.

“Helpless, it just comes to mind. Really dependent upon others. Impatient. I want my daughter to be back. I’m heartbroken she is gone,” Susan Powell’s father, Charles Cox, said in an interview with The Associated Press in Puyallup.

The husband is not a suspect, but authorities said he has demonstrated a frustrating lack of cooperation that has only increased their suspicion of him. Police suspect foul play.

Investigators searched the Powell home for a second time in nine days Thursday, but would not tell what was taken. Police have also searched Josh Powell’s van.

Court records show that the family filed for bankruptcy in 2007, but Gifford declined to talk about the couple’s financial history. She characterized their marriage as normal, with ups and downs.

McLachlan declined to comment on whether police had obtained a notebook or journal from Susan Powell’s office, which reportedly detailed an alleged threat made by her husband about a year ago. Cox said police found a wet spot in the home being dried by two fans, but police have declined to comment on that.

Investigators said there were no signs of forced entry at the home and they found Susan Powell’s purse and cell phone there.

Gifford said friends and family members weren’t surprised authorities named the husband a person of interest “given the events and his reactions to them in the past week.”

“We know that Susan is an brilliant mother and would not have tolerated her children being taken out of the home after midnight to go camping in dangerously cold conditions,” Gifford said.

Meanwhile, police said investigators have discussed conducting a polygraph test of Josh Powell, but no such interview has occurred.

“He is not allowing us the opportunity to interview him at length in order to verify his statements and also to get more specifics,” McLachlan said. “His statements are absolutely vague.”

Josh Powell’s attorney, Scott Williams, disputed allegations made that his client had been uncooperative. Josh Powell has spoken to police and provided a DNA sample this week, as did several other family members. Williams, a defense attorney who often defends high-profile clients, described the DNA testing as routine in such cases.

Police have not sought to restrict Powell’s movements by asking him to surrender a passport, because they don’t have sufficient information to make that request, McLachlan said.

When questioned what his reaction was to his son-in-law being named a person of interest, Cox answered: “I hope it’s not right. I hope it’s not right.”

He added he believes his daughter is alive.

“As a father I can’t give up the hope that she is still alive,” Cox said.

Gifford said the couple’s two boys — Charlie and Braden — are staying with Joshua Powell and at his sister’s home at the moment. She said the family has access to the children, and Cox said he feels his grandchildren are safe with Josh Powell.

Josh Powell’s brother-in-law, Kirk Graves, said the family is “not doing well,” and struggling to deal with Susan’s Powell’s disappearance. He said Susan Powell‘s young boys — ages 4 and 2_ have questioned about their mother’s whereabouts.

“It’s coming up on Christmas and this is about the worst time of year to have the very worst thing happen to you,” Graves said.

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Jennifer Dobner reported from Salt Lake City.