EU and Asian foreign ministers were looking at ways to develop closer energy and trade ties and agree on tackling climate change at talks yesterday.
More than 40 foreign minister sat down for a second day of talks here on energy, climate change and combatting terrorism.
Germany is leading a push to try to persuade a reluctant US to follow the European lead ahead of next month's G8 summit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants the G8 to agree concrete steps to halt global warming that would prepare the ground for an extension of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.
EU officials are still hoping to convince reluctant Asian nations to sign up to new emissions cuts as well. The 27-nation bloc is eager to get China and other major polluters on board a new climate change pact to replace Kyoto. Negotiations on the pact are to start in December in Bali.
"We need the Asians as well," said a spokeswoman for EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. "Global warming is something that is global and we need all continents participating in the post-Kyoto plan."
So far, Beijing has been unswayed by European pleas.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) told reporters at the two-day meeting that the EU should not expect developing countries like China or India to share the same burden of cuts as richer nations.
He said China "was not to blame for the problem" of climate change, but said his country had taken measures to reduce its emissions.
China has also called on the EU to share more green technologies with developing nations to speed up moves for economies to become more environmentally friendly.
The 27-nation bloc, however, said it was not keen to allow more technology transfers to China unless Beijing moves to give more market access for European goods and services.
But with Asia's energy demand soaring Europe remains eager to promote renewable energies and energy efficient technologies to cut overall consumption and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Europeans also need carbon credits from investments in clean energy projects in developing countries to meet their commitments under the Kyoto treaty.
ASEAN says its members need time but action is needed on global warming.
"I think we should now try to find a way to try and bring about some measurable results," ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong told reporters.
"If we go on arguing about whether this number or this standard is fair or not fair we will never agree on what to do, and in the meantime the Earth is getting warmer and more things are happening," he said.
Meanwhile, officials said a working dinner on Monday addressed international issues such as Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs and peace efforts in the Middle East.
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said talks with North Korea were "moving in the right direction," but his country and China did not ask the EU to take on a bigger role in negotiations with Pyongyang, EU officials said.
In other developments, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that he would likely meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, in Spain tomorrow.
"It's going to be Thursday, likely Madrid," Solana said yesterday on the sidelines of the Hamburg meeting.
The talks are meant to explore whether there is room to resume negotiations over Iran's disputed nuclear program.
Iranian officials said on Monday that Tehran was ready to transfer peaceful nuclear know-how to regional countries.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
The Venezuelan government on Monday said that it would close its embassies in Norway and Australia, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US. The closures are part of the “strategic reassignation of resources,” Venezueland President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in the coming days. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received notice of the embassy closure, but no
RSS