The United Nations' senior negotiator on climate change, the Dutch diplomat Yvo de Boer, has called on the European Union to raise its goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions vis-à-vis 1990 from 20 percent to 30 percent. The EU has repeatedly said that it will raise its targets only if other countries do so.

Mr De Boer says the goals can only be meaningful and attainable if wealthy countries make concrete pledges. The United States has announced that it is willing to cut emissions by 17 to 20 percent by 2020 in respect to 2005. However, since US emissions have increased by 15 percent since 1990, the reduction will only be a few percent vis-à-vis 1990. The US, the largest greenhouse gas emitter, has never signed the Kyoto Protocol and US President Barack Obama has not yet decided if he will attend next month's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen. The second largest greenhouse gas emitter, China, has also not yet announced whether it will attend the summit.

On Monday, the UN agency on global warming announced that greenhouse gas emissions are still rising and have reached record levels.

Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer
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