Emerging powers press rich world on CO2 cuts

Brazil, South Africa, India and China called on industrialised nations to step up their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a key UN climate summit later this year.

“We demand that industrialised countries set more meaningful objectives towards CO2 reductions than what they have presented up to now,” Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota told a meeting in Inhotim, Brazil.

The bloc of four emerging market countries “has done a lot to combat climate change and presented ambitious objectives,” Mr Patriota said. China’s climate change minister Xie Zhenua called for greater cooperation from industrialised countries at the next UN climate conference scheduled to take place in Durban, South Africa from November 28 to December 9.

EU and US leaders have however already warned there will be no binding deal on emissions at this year’s climate summit in South Africa. The key issues for participants ahead of Durban are how to bring timid agreements reached in Cancun, Mexico last December to life and whether or not to extend the Kyoto Protocol, which is the only international agreement with binding targets for curbing greenhouse gases and expires next year.