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NUSA DUA, Indonesia : The EU on Tuesday again dangled the prospect of even steeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions across Europe to fight global warming -- but only if the rest of the world follows suit.
Trying to spur nations like the United States which have hesitated to make binding commitments on emissions cuts, the bloc urged rich nations to rally together to slash greenhouse gas output by 30 percent by the year 2020.
The wealthy bloc has pledged a 20 percent reduction by then, but reiterated that it would up that commitment to 30 percent if other developed nations agree to do the same under a new worldwide deal to address the problem.
"We are not aiming for a low-carbon economy for the European Union alone -- we are aiming for a low-carbon economy for the globe," said Nuno Lacasta, a climate change official of current EU chair Portugal.
"Under a new global climate agreement, for which we hope this Bali conference will agree to launch negotiations, it is actually necessary for developed countries to cut their collective emissions by 30 percent by 2020."
Nearly 190 nations are at the 11-day UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference, looking to take the first steps toward a new pact to succeed the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The United States -- currently the world's worst polluter and the only industrialised nation not to have ratified Kyoto -- has so far rejected mandatory emissions cuts, advocating voluntary targets instead.
Growing economies such as India and China, which are on track to become the major carbon polluters, are also reluctant to commit to binding targets, saying the industrialised world was historically to blame for climate change.
The conference is just the first step in what will be a long process to forge a successor to Kyoto, but UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer said that talks were off to an encouraging start.
He acknowledged that opinions were colliding at the conference, but hailed the establishment Tuesday of a new working group to discuss the timeframes and options for negotiations, which should ideally wrap up before the end of 2009.
De Boer said important decisions had been made over how to transfer technologies aimed at reducing or dealing with climate change from the richest to the poorest nations.
"Developing countries feel that the rich countries have not done enough to transfer technology. It's very important that this issue is examined," he told AFP.
Poor countries are forecast to suffer most from the effects of global warming, with increased droughts, flooding, hunger and water stress.
Delegates from Bangladesh, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea joined relief agency Oxfam in demanding that rich countries help foot the bill, with costs estimated at 50 billion dollars a year for poor countries to adapt and deal with the catastrophic effects of climate change.
- AFP/ir
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