A coalition of environmentalists, faith-based groups and poverty advocates is hoping to persuade President Obama to host a national climate change summit at the White House early in his second term as a way of making good on his pledge to initiate a national discussion on the issue.

Advocates of the idea sent a petition to the White House after a Nov. 12 news conference at which Obama spoke of his plan to launch "a conversation across the country" on the risks of climate change and ways to address them.

Bob Doppelt, executive director of the Oregon-based nonprofit Resource Innovation Group and a leader of the effort, said proponents of the summit have discussed their idea with Council on Environmental Quality staff. But he stressed that CEQ has made it clear it is actively considering other ways the White House can lead on climate change in the next four years and has not signed off on the summit.

"They're looking at a whole bunch of options, and we're just one of many proposals," he said.

Doppelt said the proposed event at the White House would be held in conjunction with hundreds of other satellite meetings around the country hosted by schools, businesses and faith-based organizations. It would feature experts who would testify on ways to address climate change. "It would be a solutions-focused event," he said. Obama would preside over the meeting.

"The president is a broker of information, if you will, but he also stands up there and says, 'This is now a top priority for my administration, and I'm going to ask my administration to help you overcome these obstacles that I identify,'" Doppelt said.

The Clinton White House hosted a similar summit in 1997, with participants including Obama's first Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration head Jane Lubchenko, among others.

Bill Snape, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity and a supporter of the idea, said it could be useful in kick-starting the administration's ambitions on climate change in the second term, giving the president the chance to finally use his bully pulpit to raise the profile of the issue.

The White House, he said, has "been pretty timid up to this point, and I think the summit would be an opportunity, from my perspective, to articulate a bolder vision of moving forward that isn't just sort of massaging the old beast but finding a new vision of moving ahead."

But Snape worried the meeting might become an "end in itself," and as such detract from the practical work of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through Clean Air Act rules and other government activities.

"The solution to climate change is not talking about it more," Snape said. "The solution to climate change is reducing greenhouse gas pollution. And until that is done, and until we lay out the game plan on how that's going to be done, we are still in a downward trajectory."

Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, another proponent, said the event should be held, "but it can't be seen as a one-off event. "

"Rather, it needs to be one part of a long-term campaign that involves the president, Cabinet officers, and other leaders in the administration in an ongoing way," he continued, adding that the U.S. Global Change Research Program's National Climate Assessment, a draft of which will be released next week, could help inform their efforts.