Europe, Asia Pledge to Cut Emissions

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European and Asian leaders pledged Monday to keep cutting greenhouse gases after the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. But delegates at the two-day summit stopped short of setting new targets beyond the Kyoto agreement.

HELSINKI, Finland — European and Asian leaders pledged Monday to keep cutting greenhouse gases after the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.


But delegates at the two-day summit stopped short of setting new targets beyond the Kyoto agreement, reflecting Asian concerns that sharp emissions cuts could sap the strength of energy-hungry developing economies.


German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the climate change discussions were "fruitful."


"In comparison to 10 years ago, now all countries recognize that climate change is an important issue, that we must continue Kyoto, that the time after 2012 must be in our sights and that we must do everything possible to improve energy efficiency and, at the same time, facilitate economic growth," she told reporters.


A broad scientific consensus agrees that these gases accumulating in the atmosphere, byproducts of automobile engines, power plants and other fossil fuel-burning industries, contributed significantly to the past century's global temperature rise of 1 degree Fahrenheit.


Continued warming is melting glaciers worldwide, shrinking the Arctic ice cap and heating up the oceans, raising sea levels, scientists say. They predict major climate disruptions in coming decades.


The 1997 Kyoto Protocol commits 35 industrialized nations to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to an average 5 percent below 1990 levels during the period 2008-12. But Kyoto did not cover such industrializing giants as China and India, and did not prescribe emission reductions beyond 2012.


Washington abandoned the Kyoto treaty, saying it would hurt the U.S. economy. The commitment of Europe and Asia to continue with cuts in greenhouse emissions appeared designed to pressure the United States into a more activist role on climate change than the administration of President Bush has displayed to date.


In a joint declaration, the leaders at the summit recognized that developing countries have "legitimate priority needs" to develop their economies and lift millions out of poverty.


Europe and Asia promised to share low carbon "cleaner and climate-friendly" technologies, "without overlooking any relevant option, be it existing or new" -- which includes nuclear power.


"We are committed to enhancing energy efficiency and scaling up new and renewable energy, adapted to local circumstances," they said. as oil and gas.


But in the longer term, the only real answers are technological breakthroughs, they agreed.


Leaders promised to push this forward, by working with international financing and development institutions to encourage investment in clean energy.


The summit brought together the leaders of the 25 EU nations and those of China, Japan, South Korea, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.


The two regions, with a total population of 2.4 billion, are major energy consumers. With Asia's energy demand soaring -- pushing up oil prices -- Europe is eager to promote renewable energies and energy efficient technologies to cut overall consumption and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.


The Europeans also need carbon credits from investments in clean energy projects in developing countries to meet their commitments under the Kyoto treaty.


At the annual U.N. climate conference in November 2005 in Montreal, the Kyoto nations agreed to begin what is expected to be at least two years of talks on a post-2012 regime.


At the same time, European and other governments will step up efforts to draw the United States back into the framework of mandatory cuts in carbon dioxide, methane and other emissions blamed for global warming.


The United States is the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, and the Clinton administration was instrumental in negotiating the treaty protocol initialed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan -- a pact the Senate subsequently refused to ratify.


When Bush rejected Kyoto after taking office in 2001, he said its mandatory energy cuts would harm the U.S. economy, and he complained that major developing countries were not covered.


At their sixth summit in a decade, the European and Asian leaders observed a minute of silence for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.


The leaders also agreed to admit Pakistan, India and Mongolia to their club, along with Romania and Bulgaria once they join the EU in 2007 or 2008.


The EU has strong trade ties with Japan, China and South Korea, the three Asian economic powers, but Europe's trade with Southeast Asia has been stagnant.


In the past decade, EU trade with Japan and South Korea grew by double digit figures. EU exports to China surged 227 percent to $61.5 billion, and imports by 382 percent to $163 billion between 1995 and 2004.


Source: Associated Press


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