EU climate pact puts pressure on U.S., China

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent - Analysis

OSLO (Reuters) - A European Union deal on Friday to step up a fight against global warming could break a deadlock and nudge other big greenhouse gas emitters such as the United States, China and India to do more, experts said.

"It's a very courageous move on the part of the EU," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, which oversees stalled U.N. efforts to negotiate wider curbs on emissions of greenhouse gases beyond 2012.

"It's exactly what developing countries have been calling for. They have been calling on industrialized countries to take the lead" before discussing what they might do to slow their rising emissions, he said.

"It's a chicken and an egg situation. For many industrialized countries, including the U.S., meaningful engagement by developing countries is critical."

The 27-nation EU set unilateral goals for raising the share of renewable energies, such as hydro or wind power, to 20 percent of energy use by 2020 from below 7 now. The deal came in exchange for flexibility on national contributions.

Leaders at a Brussels summit also agreed to slash greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or 30 percent if other developed nations follow suit.

"The decision re-establishes Europe's legitimacy and credibility to play a key role facilitating and catalyzing a global agreement on climate change," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, told Reuters.

"It shifts the focus onto the G8 summit and to some extent the United States," he said. Host Germany wants the June summit of eight leading industrial nations to focus on climate change.

BUSH OPPOSES CAPS

President Bush has repeatedly said he will not drop opposition to caps on emissions under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for curbing global warming. He says Kyoto would damage the U.S. economy and wrongly excludes goals for poor nations.

Bush prefers big investments in new technologies such as hydrogen and biofuels. But many U.S. Democrats and some states and cities favor tougher Kyoto-style caps.

"I am quite optimistic that America will join the bandwagon after 2008 because we will have a new president," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

He said U.S. wider participation was a pre-condition to get developing nations to sign up. The United States is the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, ahead of China, the EU, Russia, India and Japan.

"In the end China and India will only come on board if the U.S. demonstrates that they are willing to become partners in climate protection," he said, praising the EU deal. He said it would spur new low-polluting industries in the EU.

De Boer estimated that, with the new targets, the EU might invest an extra $15 billion in renewable energies in developing nations by 2020 under a Kyoto deal allowing some emissions cuts to be made abroad.