Merkel calls on int'l efforts on climate change
Merkel calls on int'l efforts on climate change
10:05, November 04, 2009 
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Visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday urged the international community to take common action to fight against climate change, saying there was "no time to lose."
"We need an agreement at the climate conference in Copenhagen in December. We need an agreement on one objective: Global warming must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius," Chancellor Merkel told U.S. lawmakers in a speech.
"To achieve this, we need the readiness of all countries to accept internationally binding obligations. We cannot afford missing the objectives in climate protection that science tells us have to be met," said Merkel.
The United States, Germany and other major developed countries have agreed, at the G8 summit this July in Italy's L'Aquila, to support a goal of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius.
Ahead of departing for Washington, Merkel and other leaders of the EU member states have reached an agreement on the issue of climate change, forming a unified stand for negotiation at the climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
"Once we in Europe and America show ourselves ready to adopt binding agreements, we will also be able to persuade China and India to join in," said Merkel.
"And then, in Copenhagen, we shall be able to overcome this wall separating the present from the future, in the interest of our children and grandchildren, and in the interest of sustainable development all over the world," added the German leader.
Merkel, who is here to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, is the first German leader to address U.S. Congress since Konrad Adenauer in 1957.
Earlier on Tuesday, Merkel met with President Barack Obama in the White House. The two leaders reaffirmed the U.S.-German alliance over a range of common challenges from climate change to nuclear non-proliferation.
Germany stands at the center of European affairs and is a key partner in U.S. relations with Europeans in NATO and the European Union. And as two of the world's leading trading nations, the United States and Germany share a common, deep-seated commitment to an open and expanding world economy.
Source: Xinhua
"We need an agreement at the climate conference in Copenhagen in December. We need an agreement on one objective: Global warming must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius," Chancellor Merkel told U.S. lawmakers in a speech.
"To achieve this, we need the readiness of all countries to accept internationally binding obligations. We cannot afford missing the objectives in climate protection that science tells us have to be met," said Merkel.
The United States, Germany and other major developed countries have agreed, at the G8 summit this July in Italy's L'Aquila, to support a goal of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius.
Ahead of departing for Washington, Merkel and other leaders of the EU member states have reached an agreement on the issue of climate change, forming a unified stand for negotiation at the climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
"Once we in Europe and America show ourselves ready to adopt binding agreements, we will also be able to persuade China and India to join in," said Merkel.
"And then, in Copenhagen, we shall be able to overcome this wall separating the present from the future, in the interest of our children and grandchildren, and in the interest of sustainable development all over the world," added the German leader.
Merkel, who is here to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, is the first German leader to address U.S. Congress since Konrad Adenauer in 1957.
Earlier on Tuesday, Merkel met with President Barack Obama in the White House. The two leaders reaffirmed the U.S.-German alliance over a range of common challenges from climate change to nuclear non-proliferation.
Germany stands at the center of European affairs and is a key partner in U.S. relations with Europeans in NATO and the European Union. And as two of the world's leading trading nations, the United States and Germany share a common, deep-seated commitment to an open and expanding world economy.
Source: Xinhua
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