Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality James Connaughton hosts the opening ceremony of the second Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change at Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 30, 2008. 

The second Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, sponsored by the United States, opened at Honolulu in Hawaii on Wednesday.

Representatives from 16 countries, the United Nations, the European Union and the European Commission were present at the meeting which was held at the East-West Center.

Vice Chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission Xie Zhenhua attends the second Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change at Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 30, 2008.

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), James Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Dan Price, Assistant to US President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for International and Economic Affairs, and Xie Zhenhua, Vice Chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, are among the attendees.

Environmentalists demonstrate outside the venue of the second Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change at Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 30, 2008.

Yvo de Boer said at the meeting that "there is no time left that the world can lose," adding that "all efforts now have to focus on getting on the negotiations on the climate change deal off the ground to be ready by 2009."

The two-day meeting is aimed at "developing a detailed contribution in support of the Bali Roadmap for UN Negotiations, " the organizers said.

Bush held the first round of the meeting in September 2007 under an initiative he proposed in June in the face of intensifying international pressure for Washington to do more to battle greenhouse-gas emissions.

Environmentalists demonstrate outside the venue of the second Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change at Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 30, 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2008)