I am enjoying receiving pretty quick updates from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on the meetings President Obama is having in Copenhagen.
These kind of releases primarily give the nuts and bolts of who the President is meeting rather than anything on the substance of the sessions – but this kind of material from the White House is very helpful in understanding the gravity of what is going on there.
When one looks at the roster of world leaders that Obama is meeting with, the seriousness of what is being attempted at this climate change summit becomes more clear — and consequently seems evident that there will be serious political consequences for many who have invested heavily in this process if nothing real is achieved.
As I have time today, I’ll try to keep updating these notes from Robert Gibbs in the extended section link below.
Here is the latest from White House press director Robert Gibbs:
Update from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
Second Multilateral Meeting:
The President is currently attending a second multilateral meeting with many of the same leaders he met with earlier today. Yu Qingtai, Special Representative on Climate Change Negotiations of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is representing China at the meeting.
First Multilateral Meeting:
After arriving, President Obama joined a multilateral meeting with the following leaders which just concluded –
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown
French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Danish Prime Minister Lars L. Rasmussen
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina
Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
South African President Jacob Zuma
Mexican President Felipe Calderon
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
— Steve Clemons
