London (Platts)--31Aug2007

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Friday for China and other
emerging economies to set clear targets on reducing carbon emissions to stop
global warming.
     Merkel made an appeal for progress in the fight against climate change as
she visited the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, 10 years after negotiators
reached the landmark treaty on curbing emissions in that city.
     "I don't think that emerging countries should be allowed to emit CO2
without limits in line with their economic growth, to the point that their per
capita emissions surpass those in Japan, Germany or the United States," she
said.
     "So emerging countries will have to set target figures for cutting CO2
sometime in the future, if not now," she said.
     The Kyoto Protocol mandates that signatory industrial nations slash
carbon emissions.
     The US, the world's largest gas emitter, and Australia refused to ratify
the treaty, saying it was unfair as it made no demands of rapidly growing
emerging countries such as China and India.
     "Now CO2 emissions in the United States stand at 20 mt annually per
person, that in the EU is 9 mt and in China the figure is 3.5 mt," Merkel
said.
     "So industrial nations first have to make efforts in cutting gas
emissions, but in order to resolve the climate change issue, it is inevitable
to cooperate with emerging countries," she said.
     Merkel has made climate change a key focus of the German presidency of
the Group of Eight rich nations. The Kyoto Protocol, which she helped
negotiate a decade ago, expires in 2012.
     Merkel hosted the last G8 summit in June at the Baltic Sea resort of
Heiligendamm which set a non-binding goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions
by 2050.
     "It is necessary for us to show a clear direction regarding what we will
do in 2012 and onwards," Merkel said.