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Merkel calls for climate deal in early 2010

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Merkel calls for climate deal in early 2010
Photo: DPA

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that crunch UN climate talks in Copenhagen next month must lay the groundwork for a binding international pact to be signed in the first half of 2010.

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"Clearly it now depends on us, on Germany and Europe, to be ambitious there and not to put the success of Copenhagen in doubt," Merkel told reporters.

"Success means setting clear objectives so that during next year, better in the first half than in the second, we get a legally binding deal as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol."

Merkel said she would discuss Copenhagen on Thursday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and with the Swedish EU presidency ahead of a summit of the 27-nation bloc "to make our position clear in Brussels."

"Europe is at the forefront here, and is determined not to give ground on ensuring that Copenhagen has to be a success," she said.

Hopes have been dashed in recent weeks that the December 7-18 UN talks would result in a binding agreement on cutting emissions and giving poor countries access to green technologies and to cope with the ravages of climate change.

Instead the 192 countries attending are set to push for a political deal to prepare the way for a binding pact next year to follow on from the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

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