Environmental concerns from Baltic to Bali

  • 2007-10-31
  • By Mike Collier

OSLO -- The Baltic prime ministers have joined with their Nordic counterparts in calling for word leaders to commit to big reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions.

Speaking in Oslo at a gathering of the Nordic Council, the prime ministers laid out their position ahead of December's Bali summit, which forms the next staging-post on the road from the Kyoto agreement. Proposals drawn up in Bali could form the basis for future actions when the Kyoto Protocols expire in 2012.

"We see a strong need for urgent actios, a need for an agreement in Bali on an ambitious timetable... including binding commitments to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases much more than the existing Kyoto agreement," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at a Nordic Council press conference.

The Baltic leaders claim that their carbon dioxide emissions levels have fallen significantly in recent years. However, all three states are also threatening to take the European Union to court over emissions quotas that they say are too restrictive.