Stockholm/Brussels - Climate change topped the agenda on Wednesday as the presidents of Brazil and the European Union met in Stockholm, two months before crucial climate negotiations in Copenhagen. "Brazil is one of the key players in the climate negotiations ... Therefore climate change will be particularly high on the agenda," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said ahead of his talks with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.
Sweden currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and will represent the bloc in Copenhagen.
Ahead of the summit, EU officials said that the bloc wanted to set up a permanent high-level council with Brazil to run their joint action on climate change in the years following Copenhagen. It would be the first time the EU has set up such a forum with a Latin American state.
"It would be very positive if Brazil could serve as an example for other countries in South America" on climate change, Reinfeldt said.
A draft declaration prepared ahead of the summit gave no details of the council's tasks, but the EU is keen to see developing states set and implement ambitious goals for reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions, while developing countries are keen to win access to the latest climate-change technology.
According to the draft, the council would meet for the first time in 2010, and would meet once a year thereafter, alternately in Brazil and in Europe.
The EU would be represented by top officials from the bloc's executive, the European Commission, and from whichever country holds the rotating EU presidency.
The draft left open the question of who would represent Brazil, but protocol would suggest that it would be officials of ministerial level.
EU officials see Brazil as a key player on climate issues because of its immense forest areas in the Amazon and its leadership on the question of bio-fuels.
The draft declaration also committed both sides to push for an agreement in Copenhagen to put international money into the fight against deforestation.
That would be "with a view to reduce gross tropical deforestation by at least 50 per cent by 2020 and halt global forest cover loss by 2030 at the latest," it said.
The leaders were also set to discuss the financial crisis, trade and international hot-spots such as Iran and Honduras.
