The European Union's adoption of measures to fight climate change this week could set an example for the United States, China and India, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday. Under Germany's presidency, EU leaders set a binding target on Friday for renewable sources to make up 20 percent of EU energy consumption by 2020 and agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the same amount in the same period.

"We think that Europe could set an example for others to implement more attractive and better climate protection goals," Merkel said in her in weekly video "podcast" available for download on her Internet site. "By this I mean, for example, the United States and developing countries India and China. We want to discuss this at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in June."

In addition to its six-month EU presidency which runs until July, Germany is president of the Group of Eight (G8) club of industrialised nations for the entire year. Merkel has focused on climate change in both presidencies. The new EU targets will form the basis of the 27-nation bloc's negotiating position for an international agreement to extend the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and emissions reduction targets past 2012.

The EU produces about 14 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, while the United States, the world's largest polluter, produces some 25 percent. US President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.
(Planet Ark, 12/03/2007)