中国气候变化信息网 China Climate Change Info-Net

The European Union will seek an "ambitious consensus" on a new climate regime at the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali in December, said Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country holds the current EU presidency.

Speaking at the general debate of the UN General Assembly, Socrates said that the response to the challenges of climate change must be "global and collective."

"It will take both political will and determined urgent action to respond successfully to this challenge," he said.

Describing the results of Monday's UN High-level Even on Climate Change as "encouraging," Socrates said the initiative will add momentum to the formulation of a global comprehensive post-2012 agreement on the climate regime.

"We should agree to begin negotiations on such a regime at the Bali climate conference in December. The EU will make every effort there to obtain an ambitious consensus," he said.

He pointed out that the EU has already committed itself unilaterally to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent.

But he continued to say that the EU is ready to go further, in the framework of a global agreement on future climate rules, by raising its commitment to 30 percent.

Socrates also repeated the EU's call for global emissions to be reduced by at least 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.