(UK Prime Minister)Gordon Brown: EU cuts must go deeper to get Copenhagen climate deal (30% by 2020)

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/07/gordon-brown-eu-emissions-cuts

Gordon Brown: EU cuts must go deeper to get Copenhagen climate deal

Prime minister tells the Guardian he hopes the EU will agree to a cut in emissions of 30% by 2020

Ian Katz, Damian Carrington and John Vidal in Copenhagen
The Guardian, Tuesday 8 December 2009

Gordon Brown is pushing European leaders to commit to deeper cuts in carbon emissions in an attempt to seal a global deal, he revealed as representatives of 192 countries began negotiations at the climate change summit in Copenhagen.

The prime minister told the Guardian he hoped the EU would agree to cut its output of greenhouse gases by 30% on 1990 levels by 2020 – a cut 10 percentage points deeper than Europe is currently offering. So far, the EU has said it will cut by 30% only if an ambitious global deal is reached.

Brown said: "We've got to make countries recognise that they have to be as ambitious as they say they want to be. It's not enough to say 'I may do this, I might do this, possibly I'll do this'. I want to create a situation in which the European Union is persuaded to go to 30%."

Any move to increase Europe's emissions reduction target would be fiercely resisted by eastern European countries as well as Italy and Austria, who have opposed deeper cuts.

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(Video at link)