EU hopes for binding agreement at climate summit: Swedish minister

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 5 (Xinhua)-- Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said Saturday that the European Union (EU) is hoping for a legally binding agreement at the upcoming UN climate summit in Copenhagen, but expects successes and setbacks during the talks.

"It must be an agreement that brings all countries on board, must be an agreement that keep the 2-degree targets, and it must have a review clause to make sure that the ambitions can be upgraded as new science and technology is presented," said Carlgren, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

He said an effective way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions is to reduce deforestation, which needs large funding and partnership between developed and developing countries.

"We want to reduce deforestation by 50 percent by 10 years and 100 percent by 20 years, this is very ambitious," Carlgren told the EU presidency website.

Commenting on the negotiation process in Copenhagen, Carlgren said some countries really made great efforts and set up very ambitious targets, such as Japan with the new government setting up a target of 25 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions onthe basis of 1990. Russia, Norway, Brazil and Indonesia have all set up ambitious targets.

However, the emission targets of some countries would still not be sufficient to reach the target of keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius, he said.

"Until the last day and the last hours, you will still have great dramatic changes, possibilities of failure, so it will be very exciting," he added.