The European Union"s Swedish presidency urged Russia today to do more to fight climate change as part of a U.N. pact due to be agreed in Copenhagen next month, according to Reuters. Brazil"s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, meanwhile, was quoted as urging leaders to attend the Dec. 7-18 summit in Denmark to help put pressure on China and the United States, the top greenhouse gas emitters ahead of Russia, to cut back. "Most importantly we discussed the climate change issue," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in Stockholm after Swedish-Russian bilateral talks. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Russia and Sweden, which holds the EU presidency until the end of this year, both had a lower level of harmful emissions than 20 years ago but "have the potential to do more". Reasons for the declines differed sharply. Russia"s emissions have plunged since the collapse of the Soviet Union"s smokestack industries, to 34 percent below 1990 levels in 2007. Moscow projects a rise in emissions by 2020, to 10-15 percent below 1990 levels, despite a U.N.-led drive for deep cuts in Copenhagen. Sweden, by contrast, has cut its emissions to 9 percent below 1990 levels, aided by with green policies. Medvedev did not immediately comment on Reinfeldt"s call for more action. A one-day summit is also intended to lay the foundations for a new economic and political partnership between Russia and the 27-nation EU. Expectations for a deal in Copenhagen have slipped to a "political agreement", covering core issues such as cuts in emissions by developed nations and aid to the poor, since time has run out to achieve a legally binding text.
