The European Union has a vital leading role to play in fighting climate change, former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore said on Wednesday on the eve of an EU summit set to adopt new targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "I'm trying to get my country to change its policies, but in the meantime the European Union is absolutely key to helping the world make the change it must," Gore told reporters after addressing a conference on biofuels. EU leaders meeting on Thursday and Friday are expected to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming by 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels and 30 percent if other industrialised and emerging nations join in, Reuters reported. Those targets will form the basis of the EU's negotiating position for an international agreement to extend the Kyoto Protocol on climate change past 2012.
