EU calls on China and India to reduce CO2 emissions

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China and India must lead the world’s most rapidly developing economies in cutting their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions if there is to be any chance of a global pact on climate change, it has been warned.

According to the Associated Press (AP), a climate change expert has claimed that cuts from the richest European countries and the US will not be enough to reduce global CO2 emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels in the coming years.

Lars-Erik Liljelund, an advisor to the Swedish government, which is seeking to lead talks on a global agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol during the tenure of its six-month EU presidency, called on China, India, South Africa and Brazil to do more.

Those countries were not included in the targets agreed upon in Japan in 1997, which are due to expire in 2012.

The AP quoted Mr Liljelund as saying: “The problem at the moment is that if you take the contributions made so far by the US, the EU and Japan then we don’t come up to that minus 25 percent.

“We will have serious problems if China, India, South Africa and Brazil also do not pitch in. We are entering a climate crisis.”

The EU has already bound its member states to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent on 1990 levels by 2020 and pledged last month to help China and India develop clean-energy carbon sequestration technology.