Growth holds environmental answers

Climate change is arguably the greatest long-term challenge facing mankind today. The future prosperity and social stability of developed and developing countries alike are under severe threat unless we take bold action to reverse the continuing rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions that are warming up our planet.

This challenge demands an urgent and determined response in the form of an ambitious global agreement to cut worldwide emissions after 2012. Negotiations on this agreement are now under way and it is essential that the international community brings them to a successful conclusion by the end of 2009. Considering their historic responsibility, developed countries must take the lead and commit to further emission reductions, but climate change cannot be tackled successfully without action from China and the other major emerging economies.

The EU, already the world leader in combating climate change for many years, is setting an example to our partners by preparing itself to cut its emissions by as much as 30 percent of 1990 levels by 2020 when an international agreement is reached, with a reduction of at least 20 percent independently from such an international agreement.