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US urged to set 2020 target to save climate deal

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-03 03:20

BARCELONA: The United States came under pressure on Monday to follow other rich countries and set a 2020 goal for cutting greenhouse gases to rescue a climate deal due next month in Copenhagen.

The prospective Danish hosts ratcheted up pressure on the United States at a final preparatory meeting in Barcelona, saying they could not come "empty-handed" to Copenhagen.

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Some African countries threatened to walk out of the Barcelona talks, saying rich countries had to deepen their emissions-cutting targets. The head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said a US number was essential.

"We need a clear target from the United States in Copenhagen," Yvo de Boer told a news conference. "That is an essential component of the puzzle."

The United States has not yet offered a firm target for reducing emissions by 2020. By contrast, the European Union has promised a cut of at least 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and several other developed nations have set goals.

Delegates at the November 2-6 Barcelona talks said time was fast running out to break a deadlock over how to share curbs on emissions between rich and poor and ways to raise billions of dollars to help developing nations combat climate change.

The role of forests threatened to add another complication to the faltering talks.

Moscow "will insist that the ability of Russia's forests to absorb carbon dioxide be taken into account", Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, speaking after talks in Moscow with Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

Rasmussen told Reuters he hoped within weeks to have enough on the table to invite world leaders to the December conference.

Australia said its emissions fell last year, if the effect of forest fires was excluded.

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