EU environment chief to travel to US for talks on climate deal
Environment commissioner Stavros Dimas is to travel to the United States today (26 February) for discussions with his American counterparts on a possible binding international agreement to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
A commission spokesperson made the announcement following Monday's statement in Paris by a high-level US official that Washington is now willing to sign onto a global framework addressing climate change.
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"Commissioner Dimas is on his way to the United States for discussions with US authorities on the details of a possible agreement ... on an international accord after 2012," said the spokesperson, according to AFP.
The commissioner was due to visit the US for a previously scheduled meeting on 5 March, but the US official's announcement gives the talks new impetus.
"The US is prepared to enter into binding international obligations to reduce greenhouse gases as part of a global agreement in which all major economies similarly undertake binding international obligations," said Daniel Price, US President George W. Bush's deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.
Mr Price was in Paris to make arrangements for an upcoming April meeting of the world's leading economies, that produce 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The ad-hoc group, which includes China and India as well as the G8 and the EU, is an initiative of Mr Bush, having met last September and again in January, both times in the United States.
The official said that any commitment on the part of the US could only be made however, if all large economies, both developed and developing, made similar commitments. Washington has consistently refused to sign on to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol because it did not include greenhouse gas emissions cuts from developing countries.
Mr Price said he hoped any new international agreement could be announced alongside the July G8 meeting in Toyako, Japan.
Mr Bush's advisor did not say, however, by how much the United States would be willing to cut emissions.