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

Chancellor Angela Merkel called Monday on Germany's EU partners to keep their pledges on reducing greenhouse gases or risk sending the wrong message in crucial talks starting in Bali next week.

"Some EU member states have drastically increased their emissions of carbon dioxide," Merkel said, saying this endangered the emissions reductions targets that the European Union committed to in the Kyoto Protocol.

The chancellor did not name the offenders, but under Kyoto, the European Union and its then 15 members promised a reduction of eight percent by the end of 2012, when the treaty runs out.

While Germany, France and Britain are on track to meet the target, Italy and Spain have seen clear rises in emissions since 1990 -- the year of reference for Kyoto pledges.

Spain is more than 50 percent above the 1990 threshold, according to figures released in June, although it has promised to reduce this to 15 percent by the end of 2012.

Merkel said such discrepancies within the EU could lead to "a communications catastrophe regarding our role as pioneers" in pushing forward more stringent emissions limits.

If we do not reach these targets, noone will believe our promises anymore," the chancellor told a conference on the environment ahead of the talks in Bali which will set down a roadmap for negotiations over the next two years that will have to deliver massive emissions cuts beyond 2012.

The 27-nation European Union, with almost twice as many members as when Kyoto was drawn up, pledged this year to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.

"Even if it will not be easy, Bali must be a success," Merkel said.

Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who will lead the German delegation in Bali, called on industrial nations to help poorer countries to develop renewable energy.

"Prosperity for everyone is possible and it is compatible with the environment," Gabriel said in Bild newspaper Thursday.

"We must put economic growth on a different energy basis, by using renewable energy such as sun and water.

"And we must use energy far more efficiently than before."

Gabriel said Germany could be proud of its stance on the environment.

"We have not only set ourselves the most ambitious target for climate protection, we are also the only country that will arrive at the conference with a concrete climate protection package, proving that we are taking this target seriously."

Germany has set a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels -- 20 percent higher than the EU level.