The European Union (EU) on Tuesday called for a deeper
partnership with China to tackle the challenge of climate
change.
The message was delivered by Finnish Prime Minister Matti
Vanhanen, whose country holds the current six-month EU presidency,
at the China-EU Business Summit held in the Finnish capital of
Helsinki.
"Energy conservation and clean technologies are part of our
common goal of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in order to
control climate change," he said in a keynote speech delivered at
the business forum attended by some 500 senior business leaders
from China and EU countries.
Describing EU-China cooperation in climate change as "very close
and fruitful," the prime minister said "further deepening (of the)
partnership in climate change should be envisaged."
"Without wide international cooperation, we will be unable to
reach our goals," Vanhanen added.
European and Asian leaders on Monday made a declaration on
confronting global warming at their biennial Asia-Europe Summit
(ASEM) in Helsinki, calling for the widest possible cooperation to
deal with the challenge.
Saying that climate change and energy security were
interrelated, the leaders believed more international cooperation
was needed to promote the development, transfer and deployment of
low-carbon technology, and to help developing ASEM countries
possess cleaner technologies.
They also called for the enhancement of energy efficiency and
the scaling up of the use of new and renewable energy.
(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2006)
