Euro-MP slams US, China over climate change
(BRUSSELS) - A senior EU lawmaker on Monday criticised the US and China as the "biggest failures" on climate change after Asia-Pacific leaders buried hopes of forging a binding pact to combat global warming.
"US and China disappoint the world", said German Socialist MEP Jo Leinen, who chairs the European Parliament's environment committee and will chair the parliament's delegation in the Danish capital.
"The biggest polluters turn out to become the biggest failures for climate protection", he added.
Leinen said a failure by Washington and Beijing to back specific greenhouse gas reduction goals would be a "severe setback" in efforts to halt global warming.
His comments came after Asia-Pacific leaders at talks in Singapore on Sunday said that an internationally legally-binding successor to the Kyoto Treaty would be an unrealistic aim at the Copenhagen summit next month.
A political statement of intent was a more likely option at the key UN summit, they said.
Both US President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao attended the talks.
In a final declaration, the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group called Sunday for "an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen" but dropped a proposal included in earlier drafts to slash their greenhouse gas emissions to half their 1990 levels by 2050.
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