12-18-2009, 09:24 PM
[url="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/12/senior-white-house-official-the-chinese-are-dug-in-weve-done-what-we-can-in-copenhagen.html"]Senior White House Official: The 'Chinese Are Dug In'; 'We've Done What We Can' in Copenhagen[/url]
Quote:"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."
After landing in Denmark early this morning, President Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a bilateral at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to press the case that China needs to allow for transparency.
"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."
The original goal of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen was a legally binding international treaty reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. It became clear months ago that at least partly because of the Chinese refusal to commit to serious greenhouse gas emission cuts, that would not happen.