Emissions cuts

"We've got to make countries recognize that they have to be as ambitious as they say they want to be," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said by way of underscoring his call for a 30 percent EU emissions reduction by 2020.

"It's not enough to say 'I may do this, I might do this, possibly I'll do this.' I want to create a situation in which the European Union is persuaded to go to 30 percent," Brown told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published Tuesday.

As it stands, EU members have agreed to a 20 percent reduction on 1990 carbon output levels by 2020. In addition they have pledged to up the figure to 30 percent if Copenhagen yields an ambitious deal.

Too much too soon

And until the ink has dried on any such accord, many members of the 27-nation bloc -- most notably Italy, Austria and the eastern countries -- are not willing to put themselves out on a limb.

Speaking on the margins of a Brussels meeting with his European counterparts on Monday, Polish Foreign Minister Mikolaj Dowgielewicz said Gordon Brown's calls for an increased "level of ambition" were premature.

"At the moment the conditions for the EU to move to 30 percent are not met," Dowgielewicz said, adding that other countries should put offers on the table first.

France, however, has reiterated its commitment to reaching a binding climate deal. Speaking in Copenhagen, French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said his country was "in favor of the upper offer of 30 percent as soon as an international accord is found."

Up in the air

And although there are many long days ahead in the Danish capital, that ambitious deal is far from signed and sealed. On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the ZDF public broadcaster that she was only "mildly optimistic" about the outcome of the conference. But she reiterated the importance of reaching an agreement.

"The aim of this conference must be an international commitment to the limiting of global warming to two degrees by 2050, and for that, all must step up (their offers), in particular countries like China and India that don't yet recognize this two degree aim," Merkel said.

EU delegates will meet in Brussels again later this week for a two-day summit to discuss the issue of increased carbon reduction aims and how to fund climate change in developing countries.

tkw/dpa/AFP
Editor: Trinity Hartman