Germany's Merkel Wants Climate Deal In First Half 2010
BERLIN -(Dow Jones)- A binding, global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions should be struck in the first six months of 2010, Germany's Chancellor
Angela Merkel said Wednesday.
Merkel told reporters after meeting with her cabinet in Meseberg, northwest of
Berlin, that a decision last weekend by Asian leaders not to press for such an
agreement at a December climate change conference in Copenhagen shouldn't lower
expectations for "success" at that gathering.
"Success means that...in the course of the next year--I'll say better in the
first half of the year than the second half--we come to a legal, binding
agreement that has the strength to follow the Kyoto Protocol," Merkel said,
referring to the 1997 treaty under which many nations agreed to make binding
emissions cuts. It expires in 2012, and next month's meeting in Copenhagen is
the most recent in attempts to draft a successor treaty.
Since taking office in 2005, Merkel has made combating climate change one of
her signature issues.
"It's up to us, to Germany, to Europe, to act very ambitiously and not to put
the success of Copenhagen in doubt," Merkel said.
She also said she planned to speak with European leaders including French
President Nicolas Sarkozy to establish a common European strategy for the
Copenhagen conference.
-By Patrick McGroarty, Dow Jones Newswires; 49-30-288-8410; patrick.mcgroarty@
dowjonescom
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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