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Hendricks: Poorer countries must do more to combat CO2 emissions

December 19, 2014

Germany's environment minister has called for emerging economies to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She also praised Germany's role at the recent climate conference in Lima.

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Barbara Hendricks Bundestag 19.12.2014
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Pedersen

Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks told the Bundestag lower house of parliament in Berlin on Friday that all countries needed to do the part in the global effort to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change.

Hendricks noted that while the landmark 1997 Kyoto Protocol included targets for reducing such gases for industrialized nations, none were set for emerging economies such as China and India. She said that while industrialized nations had produced 80 percent of greenhouse gases over the previous two centuries, the situation in 2014 was completely different, with more than half of all CO2 emissions being caused by emerging and developing economies.

She noted that China was now the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and India the third-biggest, meaning that the differentiation between industrialized and emerging economies when it comes to combating climate change "no longer makes sense."

"Whoever contributes more to global warming must do more to combat climate change," Hendricks said.

She argued that the targets set for any single country should be determined by how much they emit combined with their economic might. Stronger economies need to support weaker nations in the effort where necessary, she said.

Lima conference 'not a failure'

While conceding that last week's climate conference in Lima, Peru did not produce the breakthrough that many had hoped for, Hendricks said "it also wasn't a failure." She said the agreement reached at the end of the conference was a solid foundation for further talks and she praised Gemany's role in Lima.

She said that an action plan adopted by the German government prior to the conference, in which it pledged to cut greenhouse gas emission by 40 percent by 2020 had received universal praise and contributed to a "positive dynamic" in Lima.

The draft deal agreed in Lima sets out the key points for a global climate pact that officials hope will be finalized at a conference in Paris in a year's time.

pfd/ (Reuters, dpa)