US president Barack Obama and European Union leaders pledged last night to redouble efforts for a deal on climate change at a summit in Copenhagen, but gave no details of how to reach that ambitious goal.
"We discussed climate change extensively and all of us agreed that it was imperative for us to redouble our efforts in the weeks between now and the Copenhagen meeting to ensure that we create a framework for progress," Mr Obama told reporters.
The UN conference to fight climate change will be held in Copenhagen from December 7th to 18th, pitting emerging economic powerhouses China and India against Western industrial nations in the drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Obama spoke after a White House meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, EU Foreign Affairs chief Javier Solana and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the EU's collective presidency.
The Europeans sounded optimistic a deal was within reach.
"Regarding climate change, I want to tell (you) that I am more confident now than I was in days before," said Mr Barroso.
"President Obama changed the climate on the climate negotiations. Because with the strong leadership of the United States we can indeed make an agreement."
Mr Barroso earlier told reporters not to expect "a full-fledged binding treaty, Kyoto-type, by Copenhagen."
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel told US lawmakers after meeting with Mr Obama earlier yesterday that a deal was urgent and there was "no time to lose."
Ms Merkel, making the first address by a German leader to a joint session of the US Congress since Konrad Adenauer in 1957, was much more specific in what a deal would require.
"We need an agreement on one objective, global warming must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius," she said.
"To achieve this, we need the readiness of all countries to accept internationally binding obligations," she said.
In a declaration issued after the US-EU summit, the leaders said they had agreed "to promote an ambitious and comprehensive international climate change agreement in Copenhagen."
"Together, we will work towards an agreement that will set the world on a path of low-carbon growth and development, aspires to a global goal of a 50 per cent reduction of global emissions by 2050, and reflects the respective mid-term mitigation efforts of all major economies, both developed and emerging," the statement said.
The leaders also said they would "work to mobilize" significant financial resources to support climate efforts by developing countries and strengthen efforts to develop strong carbon markets.
Work toward a new deal ran into obstacles in the US Senate and at UN negotiations that began on Monday in Barcelona, Spain, the last session before Copenhagen.
Reuters