EU urges member nations to tackle climate change

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Source: CCTV.com | 10-16-2008 15:06

The head of the European Commission has urged EU leaders not to use the financial crisis as an excuse to drop the goals they agreed on last year to tackle climate change.

European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, right, gestures as he addresses the media together with Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown after a meeting at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday,  Oct 15, 2008.(AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Jose Manuel Baroso, European Commission President, said, "What I believe is important, is that we understand that climate change is not an optional extra. As I said yesterday, it is not an aperitif or a digestif that we take only when we are feeling good. No, no, it's a challenge, a real challenge that did not disappear because of the financial crisis."

Barosso was speaking after a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, ahead of a two-day EU summit in Brussels.

Brown agreed with Barroso. He said that despite the global financial crisis, the climate change agenda should not be abandoned.

Efforts to ease the global financial crisis top the summit agenda. There are fears that some leaders may use the economic turmoil to derail the EU's plans to fight climate change that were agreed on last year.

Greenpeace appealed to EU leaders not to use the financial crisis as an excuse to cut climate change targets.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei