EU calls on US to fight climate change

The European Union's Luxembourg presidency called on the United States to take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions as the Kyoto treaty on global warming went into effect.
Luxembourg Environment Minister Lucien Lux said: "I call on everyone on behalf of the 25 member states of the European Union, on all developed countries that have not ratified the treaty to do so and to undertake the same sort of effort to reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions.
"I particularly call on the United States -- the visit of the president of the United States next week to Brussels... will be an opportunity to make this invitation explicit," he told a press conference.
President George W. Bush will hold summit talks with EU leaders here next Tuesday with the bloc promising to press the issue of climate change despite Bush's refusal to endorse the 1997 Kyoto agreement.
The EU has been the leading backer of the Kyoto treaty but as it entered into force, attention is already turning to the post-Kyoto scenario when its reductions to greenhouse gas emissions expire in 2012.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana meanwhile feted the implementation of the treaty as concrete proof of the value of international action.
"Climate change is a threat not only to our environment, but also to our security," he said in a statement.
"The international community has recognised this threat and is implementing a global strategy to counter it. Kyoto represents a concrete example of effective multilateralism in action," he said.
In a statement transmitted by video to a special event in the Japanese city of Kyoto, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the treaty was the "first but crucial step" to a cleaner world.
"It is imperative that we do all we can to save our planet for future generations, and indeed make it safer for us all today," he said.