Italy minister says EU CO2 targets too costly: report

MILAN (Reuters) - The global financial turmoil has made European plans to cut carbon emissions steeply by 2020 too costly and its burden should be shared with other countries, Italy's Environment Minister was on Tuesday quoted as saying.

By 2020 the European Union aims to cut greenhouse gases emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels and have 20 percent of energy coming from renewable sources with overall costs estimated at about 0.5 percent of gross domestic product a year.

"In this period of international economic difficulties it is absurd that Europe alone should take on a heavy burden of costs to achieve very modest environmental benefits," Stefania Prestigiacomo told Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore in an interview.

Meeting the EU targets, including debated car emission reductions, would cost Italy "unsustainable" 20-25 billion euros ($27.18 billion to $33.98 billion) a year, while its contribution to the overall carbon dioxide reduction goal was a tiny 0.3 percent, Prestigiacomo said.

Italy would like to "improve" the EU package by scrapping binding mechanisms and clarifying criteria on how target burden is distributed among the countries, she said.

The EU also should get the world biggest polluters, such as the United States, China and India, involved more actively in fighting climate change to make it really efficient, she added.

"We are ready to accept sacrifices if they bring real benefits, not virtual," she said ahead of European ministers' meeting on climate change and energy policy on October 15.

(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova; editing by James Jukwey)