The European Union is ready to show continued leadership on the climate agenda and will speed up the green diplomacy now, with less than three months to go to the UN climate conference in Copenhagen. That was the message from the EU Presidency, the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, at a press conference in Copenhagen today.
”We will continue to show European leadership. Europe is not going to decide everything, we require of course agreement with everyone else in the world. But I think that it is not going to happen without European leadership,” Carl Bildt said. ”As we now approach the Copenhagen meeting we must accelerate the European global diplomacy and that is what we have decided here in Copenhagen to do, today, in the days, weeks, and months to come.”
By invitation of the Danish foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller, five European foreign ministers met in Copenhagen on Thursday. The foreign ministers from Sweden, United Kingdom, France, Finland and Denmark decided to unite diplomatic efforts to speed up the global negotiations on a new climate deal to take over, when emissions targets in the Kyoto Protocol expire in 2012.
”We decided to pool our diplomatic network around eight hundred embassies all together to influence key international partners in the climate negotiations. We will organize and coordinate our contacts with key countries, including of course developing countries,” Per Stig Moeller said. ”We feel that the momentum is now, and it is here in Copenhagen – only with political will from all participants – we can grasp that momentum. If we miss this opportunity it will fade away,” he said.
The British foreign minister, David Miliband, said that the world is now entering the ”hot phase of the campaign”.
”We are here because a Copenhagen deal hangs in the balance. There is a real danger that the world will not come together in the way that it is necessary to agree on an ambitious and comprehensive deal in December,” he said and mentioned the financing of a deal as an important unsolved issue.
The Danish minister said it is time for Europe to show ”leadership on ensuring an ambitious financial package that can assist the poorest countries to adapt to the challenges posed by the climate change. My colleagues and I have agreed that we must work as hard as possible together to help prepare the ground for a result at the European summit next month on this issue.”
The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, expressed understanding that the developing countries don’t want to harm their chances of economic development by a new climate deal.
The Finnish foreign minister, Alexander Stubb, sent the message that the climate negotiations are not just about global warming. The outcome is also important for the environment, the economy and the security of the world.
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