Brussels - The European Union should pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050 in a bid to forge a global deal on fighting climate change, the bloc's presidency said Tuesday ahead of a meeting of EU environment ministers. The call challenges EU member states to grab the initiative in international talks on fighting climate change by setting a long-term goal before most other economies have even agreed mid-term targets.
But some member states say that it would be wrong to commit the bloc to long-range cuts before world powers such as China and the United States have set their own goals.
"By 2050 emissions should have dropped by at least 80 per cent. But if we are to succeed in keeping below two degrees, the EU's actions will not suffice," Sweden's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren told the European Parliament.
"We now urge other industrialized countries, not least the United States, to raise their bids," he said.
Sweden holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year and will represent the bloc at United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
Carlgren was speaking hours before EU environment ministers were du to meet in Luxembourg to try and agree a common negotiating position ahead of the Copenhagen talks.
According to a draft declaration obtained by the German Press Agency dpa, Sweden wants the EU to approve an "objective to reduce emissions by 80-95 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels, in line with necessary reductions by developed countries as a group."
The proposal follows recommendations from UN experts.
But it has provoked a bitter fight within the EU. Last week, diplomats in Brussels reached deadlock over the issue and decided that only ministers had the political authority to handle it.
Some EU insiders say that the question is so sensitive that even environment ministers might not be able to solve it, and predict that they will pass the question on to national leaders at an EU summit on October 29-30.
So far, the EU has pledged to cut emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and to deepen that cut to 30 per cent if there is an "ambitious" deal in Copenhagen.
"We see the 30-per-cent target as a lever to convince other parties to join us in being more ambitious," Carlgren said.
In a further bid to put pressure on the rest of the world, ministers were also set to debate issues such as border taxes on imports from countries which do not adopt climate standards, emissions targets for aviation and shipping, and worldwide markets for trading emissions permits.
