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VOA常速英语:EU Ministers Discuss Funding Environment Projects

2008-10-23来源:和谐英语

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European environmental ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss ways to significantly cut greenhouse-gas emissions - without hurting economies struggling with the current financial crisis. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.

The European Union members discussed goals agreed to last year by the 27-member bloc to slash greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2020.  

But the European Union is facing another problematic climate as the world wrestles with the worst financial crisis in decades. Italy and several other eastern European countries worry they will not be able to afford making the proposed emissions cuts.

Italy and Poland have warned they may veto the final EU climate change agreement if it is not to their liking. During the meeting in Luxembourg, Italian Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo told reporters the agreement was unsuitable in its present form.

But other ministers said they believed the final climate-change agreement would be largely unchanged.

The Europeans are racing to finalize their package before a U.N. climate change meeting in December. A number of EU countries, including Britain, along with the U.N. climate-change panel, believe it is important the Europeans stick to their greenhouse cutting goals and show leadership in this area.  

European environment commission Stavros Dimas also objected to watering down the EU's objectives, as he made clear during remarks to the press this month.

"I am confident that an agreement will be settled by the end of this year and keeping to this timing is important, since we need to give to the international community a clear signal the European Union is on target to meet its own climate commitments," he said.

The EU meeting coincided with a new report by the environmental group the World Wide Fund for Nature claiming that climate change was increasing faster than predicted, with serious consequences in Europe and elsewhere.
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