EU heads of state and government, in a declaration released today, reaffirmed their commitment to the Kyoto protocol, as a crucial meeting in Bonn on climate change got under way.
"The European Union remains firmly committed to bringing the Protocol into force by 2002," said the declaration, released by the Belgian presidency of the EU.
It said the EU and its 15 member states were "determined to meet their own commitments under the Kyoto protocol," after having achieved a 4 per cent drop in greenhouse gas emissions in 1990-99.
"The European Union calls on all industrialised countries to take up their responsibilities in a common effort to succeed in this first step to combat climate change," the declaration said.
"These countries indeed committed themselves to take the lead in this effort when they ratified the Framework Convention," it added, in a clear reference to the US.
"The European Union also calls on all other countries, in every region and hemisphere, in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities, to contribute effectively to the rapid entry into force of the Kyoto protocol," it said.
"Climate change is taking place now. Its consequences will be felt globally. Time is pressing and the international community cannot afford to postpone action. The European Union will do its utmost to reach success at these Bonn negotiations," it said.
Shaken by US President George W. Bush's rejection of the Kyoto process, the EU tried but failed in the run-up to Bonn to get other industrial nations - notably Japan and Australia - to reassert their commitment to the treaty.
Talks aimed at salvaging the Kyoto protocol got off to a gloomy start in Bonn today after Japan said it needed at least three more months to try to coax the United States back to the agreement.
Concluded in 1997, the protocol would set firm targets and deadlines for countries to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming.
But it has yet to be ratified by any major industrialized country, pending the completion of a complementary accord on exactly how the reductions should be undertaken.
AFP