United States Mission Geneva

Good morning. It’s an honor to for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people.

Today I’ve had some useful conversations – already met with my Chinese friend Xie Zhenhua and have been working on the negotiations that are going to be coming up this afternoon. Members of our U.S. team have been participating in the various informal consultations that have spun out of the plenary session that Connie Hedegaard, the President of the COP, held yesterday.

Over the course of the week, I’ve had a number of very constructive conversations. Let me make one comment about something back at home. In I think an important development in the U.S. Senate, Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman announced a comprehensive framework for energy and climate legislation, and this is actually quite a significant development, a significant step in the effort to pass comprehensive energy and climate reform. The President believes this is a positive development towards reaching a strong, unified and bipartisan agreement on such legislation in the U.S. One element of the framework that is particularly relevant and important to the international process says that American leadership – now I’m quoting from what the senators released – “American leadership is essential, but action by the developing world is necessary to maximize the benefits of our effort.

The bottom line is the United States is committed to getting the strongest possible agreement we can over the next two weeks. We are under no illusion that this is going to be easy. I think it is going to be challenging. But I think an agreement is there to be had if we do this right and we need to keep at all times very much in sight of our – keep in our view the end goal that has brought us here. We have – the President has demonstrated a strong commitment to this issue from day one.

Progress is being made towards a meaningful Copenhagen accord – The President believes that continued US leadership can be most productive through his participation at the end of the Copenhagen conference on Dec. 18th rather than on Dec. 9th. The United States will have representation in Copenhagen throughout the negotiating process by State Department negotiators and Cabinet officials…

The White House announced today that President Obama will travel to Copenhagen on Dec. 9 to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where he is eager to work with the international community to drive progress toward a comprehensive and operational Copenhagen accord.

The U.S. Mission in Geneva is the first State Department facility, abroad or at home, to receive this designation, certifying that our grounds provide the essential elements for healthy and sustainable wildlife habitats.

This eJournal USA offers perspectives of experts and activists in several key countries on effective policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate global warming and adapt to irreversible changes, and features an introduction by U.S. special envoy Todd Stern.

I have been in office for just nine months — though some days it seems a lot longer. I am well aware of the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world. These expectations are not about me. Rather, they are rooted, I believe, in a discontent with a status quo that has allowed us to be increasingly defined by our differences, and outpaced by our problems. But they are also rooted in hope — the hope that real change is possible, and the hope that America will be a leader in bringing about such change.