EU Scrambles after UN Climate Talks "Great Failure"

Andreas Carlgren, the environment minister of Sweden, the country holding the rotating EU presidency, said that the UN summit meeting had been a “great failure”. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The EU's environment ministers have said the US needs to become more active in climate talks as the bloc is on the lookout for new climate allies following the disappointing outcome of the Copenhagen talks.

European Union environment ministers on Tuesday tried to inject new momentum into climate talks at a meeting in Brussels. The ministers emphasized the need for concrete, legally binding measures to combat global warming.

But German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen also spoke of a "coalition of the like-minded" who want effective climate protection.

"We have to find allies that will join us on the path to the next conferences," Roettgen said. "There are such states, and these new alliances must be organized." Countries such as Japan, South Korea and Australia were named.

Andreas Carlgren, the environment minister of Sweden, the country holding the rotating EU presidency, said that the summit meeting had been a “great failure” partly because other nations had rejected targets and a timetable for the rest of the world to sign on to binding emissions reductions.

"Europe never lost its aim, never, never came to splits or different positions," Carlgren said at a news conference in Brussels. "But of course, this was mainly about other countries really (being) unwilling, and especially the United States and China."

“It was obvious that the United States and China didn’t want more than we achieved at Copenhagen,” Carlgren added.

The next UN climate conferences will take place in Bonn in June and in Mexico at the end of November.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!