The European Union (EU) should put forward more concrete commitments and accept a larger role in helping developing nations reduce their emissions and adapt to climate impacts, said the WWF in response to EU's proposals for a global climate change agreement.

"Europe needs to stop anticipating what the rest of the world might do and concentrate on what Europe should do if it wants to reclaim the reputation of leading in the fight against climate change," said Kim Carstensen, leader of WWF's New Global Deal on Climate initiative.

The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled proposals for a new global deal, which is hopefully to be reached at a UN climate conference in the Danish capital of Copenhagen in December 2009.

The EU proposals include a call for developed countries as a group to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020 on the1990 levels. Differentiated goals shall be set up for each developed country according to criteria such as income levels and emissions per GDP unit.

The blueprint also calls on developing countries to limit growth in their collective emissions to 15 to 30 percent below "business as usual" levels by 2020. Developing countries, except the poorest ones, are asked to adopt low-carbon development strategies covering all key emitting sectors by 2011.

The European Commission proposes the creation of a carbon market covering all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries by 2015. The market should be expanded to include major emerging economies by 2020 with a view to building a global carbon market.

The WWF, a worldwide conservation organization, said the EU needed to go beyond restoring previous commitments to reduce emissions by 30 percent over the 1990 levels by 2020, and commit to achieving these reductions within the EU, instead of gaining polluting rights by investing in environment projects in developing countries.

The WWF also asked the EU to help developing nations reduce emissions. Money on the table is the make-or-break issue for developing countries to substantially reduce their emissions, said the WWF through its Brussels-based European Policy Office.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2009)