European Union environment officials today urged the world's major economies to join the 27-member bloc in its ambitious plans to curb global warming, according to dpa. "We want to offer co-leadership to the United States and other important countries," said outgoing Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik, whose country currently chairs the EU. The call came some eight months before a United Nations conference in Copenhagen, which aims to set new targets for reducing emissions of gases heating up the planet. The Copenhagen deal, to be hammered out in December, is intended to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012. In a run-up to the Copenhagen summit, the EU has pledged to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. The bloc offered to reduce its emissions by 30 per cent if other developed countries joined the effort. To the EU's frustration, no other of the world's leading economy has made such a legally-binding commitment.
