EU closing climate 'ambition gap'

BRUSSELS, June 4 (UPI) -- Members of the European Union are closing the "ambition gap" between needs and intentions on climate change, the EU climate commissioner said Wednesday.

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said member states are looking at ways to bolster their commitments to addressing climate change during a 10-day climate summit in Bonn, Germany, which began Wednesday.

The EU, she said, has already met its commitments outlined under the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty.

"This is thanks largely to over a decade of determined policy action by the EU and member states," she said in a statement. "We are making a significant contribution to closing the 'ambition gap' between what the world needs to do and what countries intend to do by the end of this decade."

The EU said Tuesday the overall level of greenhouse gas emissions from member states are 19.2 percent below the 1990 baseline. Member states are obligated to cut emissions by 20 percent from the 1990's level by 2020.

Asad Rehman, an international campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said the EU emissions levels were inadequate.

"The fact that the EU has almost met its greenhouse gas reduction goal seven years early simply highlights how inadequate this target was," he said in a statement.

The emissions report follows a proposal for the U.S. government to cut emissions from existing power plants by 30 percent of a 2005 baseline by 2030.