President Obama and his Green Cabinet are scrambling to salvage a possible deal during climate talks in Copenhagen, with the president hosting private meetings with world leaders and multiple reports of tension between delegates.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says Obama is huddling for the second time with world leaders he spoke with earlier, and notes Yu Qingtai, Special Representative on Climate Change Negotiations of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is representing China at the meeting.
He also had lunch with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, Ghana President John Mills, Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Dukanovi, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Czech Republic Prime Minister Jan Fischer, Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili, Serbian President Boris Tardic and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting that administration officials are telling reporters “The “Chinese are dug in.”
From their piece:
“We’ve done what we can here,” a senior White House official in Copenhagen, Denmark, tells ABC News. “The Chinese are dug in on transparency and are refusing to let people know they’re living up to their end of the agreement.”
…
“The President’s priority is to make our economy far more focused on a clean energy economy that creates jobs,” the official said. “He is here to work constructively and participate in hoping to get an international accord. But not getting one here won’t change wanting to transform our economy to create the new foundation he’s talked about.”
Also of note, a Huffington Post contributor posts what he says is the final draft agreement from the summit.
