Nasheed issues new warning over climate change during German tour

President Mohamed Nasheed touring Germany has issued fresh warning over climate change, prompting Berlin to call for tough action to combat the issue.

'We will simply not survive as a country if there is no agreement (on cutting CO2 emissions),' Foreign news reports from Berlin quoted Nasheed as saying on Monday, at a press conference, following talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“For her part, the German leader warned about the risk of deadlock emerging at the United Nations' climate change talks set for November in Mexico City,” reports said.

'Germany along with the European Union will be again pressing for binding targets (on greenhouse gas emissions),' Merkel was quoted as saying in the news coming from Berlin adding that “it remained open whether China and India could be convinced by then of the need to set goals.”

India and China, which are two of the world's leading emerging economies, have ruled out adopting binding climate change targets.

“What also matters, said Merkel, was to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.”
The Copenhagen climate summit last December agreed to limit warming to 2 degrees but did not set out the moves for reaching the goal.

* 'We will simply not survive as a country if there is no agreement (on cutting CO2 emissions), says President Nasheed
* Germany assures to press for binding greenhouse gas cuts along with EU

“Considering the controversy surrounding the Copenhagen meeting, Nasheed did not appear optimistic that negotiations on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, saying that the chances of forging a concrete agreement this year were not great,” it added.

- Asian Tribune -