Thursday, December 10, 2009 COPENHAGEN: The European Union (EU) put pressure on the US and China to do more with their emission cut targets and called on the two countries to take a leadership role as the Copenhagen climate talks continued on the second day."The US and China have not offered to go far enough to combat climate change," CNN quoted a top EU official as saying Monday.Final negotiations at the conference "will be mostly about what will be delivered from the US and China," said Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's environment minister, who pressed US President Barack Obama to do more than he promised in a statement before the conference.The so-called "G2" concept, frequently mentioned in G20 summits this year, reappeared in many media to refer to the responsibility the two countries should assume.China and the US together cover half of the world's emissions so what they can deliver is very decisive, Carlgren said.Jin Canrong, a professor from Renmin University of China, told the Global Times in an interview that it is undeniable that China and the US are two major emitters, but the motive behind the EU’s statement is its intention to shift the burden to China and the US; in which case, they will bear the final result of the climate talks, be it good or bad.Last month China announced its plan to reduce 40 percent to 45 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of the GDP in 2020 compared with 2005 levels. This target was followed by the US' commitment of a 17 percent cut by 2020 below 2005 levels.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
Comments