Special Report: Fight against Global Warming

    PARIS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The third Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change (MEM) closed here on Friday with no substantial progress and no agreement reached on specific greenhouse gas reduction goals.

    Representatives from 16 major economies and international organizations agreed to lay out mid- and long-term goals for greenhouse gas reductions, but differences remain over specific goals for limiting the greehouse gases.

    As a result, representatives agreed to hold two more rounds of meetings in May and June respectively, French State Secretary for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet told a press conference.

    During the two-day meeting, representatives exchanged views on long-term greenhouse gas reduction goals, technological cooperation as well as financing, Jouyet said.

    They agreed that climate change is a pressing issue which callsfor close cooperation among all countries.

    Illustrating the urgency of climate change while addressing the meeting, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the issue affects everyone in the world.

    However, there were still some major differences between the European Union (EU) and the United States as well as between the developing countries and the developed world, Jouyet said.

    The United States has long resisted the EU's call for specific reduction targets to curb the carbon-dioxide emissions that scientists have linked to global warming.

    Bush said on Wednesday that he wants U.S. emissions to peak by 2025, thanks to greater incentives for energy efficiency and a switch to low-carbon technology.

    But his reduction plan won little applause. Instead, it drew criticism from many representatives at the meeting, who voiced their disappointment at the U.S. proposal, saying there was little new in it.

    According to estimates by Chief Economist for the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol, even if all of Bush's reduction measures were able to be implemented, carbon-dioxide emissions in the United States is likely to increase 23 percent by 2025 compared with the 1990 level.

    Besides, differences between developed nations and developing countries were focused on how to clarify responsibilities in eliminating greenhouse gases.

    Stressing the principles of common but differentiated responsibility, Jouyet said developed countries should take the lead in reducing carbon emissions.

    The developing countries, on the other hand, should also play their due part in tackling climate change, he added.

    Speaking at the meeting, Xie Zhenhua, deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China, said that drawing up international conventions within the frameworks ofthe Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Roadmap is the most fundamental way to reach genuine consensus on the issue and make substantial progress in climate change negotiations.

    Jouyet shared similar views when addressing the opening ceremony. He called on countries to conduct frank and constructive negotiations, on the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change, in efforts to pave the way for reaching agreement on a new global cooperation pact on fighting climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, by the end of 2009.

    The meeting of major economies on energy and climate was organized at the initiative of the United States, and brought together Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, South Korea, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Britain, Russia and South Africa, as well as the UN, the European Union (EU) and the IEA.

    The series of major economy meetings aim to form a new international frame for climate change.

    The Paris meeting is the third since the establishment of this body. Its first meeting was held in Washington in September 2007 and the second meeting in Hawaii in January.