Britain's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, ed Miliband, has urged President Obama to attend next month's Copenhagen summit on climate change:
"I think as many leaders as possible - including President Obama - do need to come there, because that will make a difference in the end to the kind of deal we want... His diary is a matter for him, but I hope he does go. I think it's important that this is done in the end by leaders."
(Source: BBC).
The pressure on the US President is likely to be resented by the White House. President Obama does not want to be associated with a failed summit and in the last 24 hours there has been a retreat from the initial hope that Copenhagen would deliver a binding climate deal.
World leaders are more hesitant, partly because of opinion polling which suggests voters do not see action on climate change as a priority during these difficult economic times. In a poll of British voters for The Times, "only just over a quarter (28 per cent) think that [climate change] is happening and is “far and away the most serious problem we face as a country and internationally”. "Just over half (51 per cent)," found Populus for The TImes, "think it is “a serious problem, but other problems are more serious”.
A growing number of Americans think media coverage of climate change is "exaggerated".
