Herald Sun
Source: AP
Brussels -- Leaders of the European Union have pledged they will stick to a pricey plan for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, saying the recent meltdown of financial markets must not deter efforts to combat global warming.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that despite some misgivings about the cost, "climate change is so important that we cannot use the financial and economic crisis as a pretext for dropping it''.
When the summit started, Poland and six other eastern European members issued a surprise demand that the EU drop a December target for agreeing on details of the plan to bring about a 20 per cent cut in EU greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Italy joined the group in arguing that the costs of going green, combined with the looming economic downturn, was too much for industry to bear.
As Britain declared it would introduce a legally binding pledge to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, Mr Sarkozy said he would try to forge a fair deal for sharing the burden, to avoid penalising the bloc's former communist nations that depend largely on coal for their power.
The EU climate package includes steps to force major polluters such as energy generators, steel makers and cement producers to pay billions into a cap-and-trade emissions program costing about $100 billion a year in polluter fees.
The plan is to enact the package in 2009 and draw the United States and other nations into a broad international program.
EU leaders said they would consider a stimulus package.
Mr Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso are to meet US President George W Bush at the weekend to lay the groundwork for a global summit to overhaul the financial system.