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German chancellor calls for targets on carbon emissions

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called yesterday 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 there reached a landmark treaty on curbing emissions.

The German leader has suggested that future climate deals impose requirements that factor in each country's population, in the hope of bringing on board populous China and India.

"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 at the end of a week-long visit to Japan and China.

The Kyoto Protocol mandates that signatory industrial nations slash carbon emissions.

The US and Australia refused to ratify the treaty, saying it was unfair as it made no demands of rapidly growing countries such as China, which is set to surpass the US as the world's top gas emitter.

"Now CO2 emissions in the United States stand at 20 tonnes annually per person, that in the EU is nine tonnes and in China the figure is 3.5 tonnes," 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 expires in 2012.

Germany hosted the last Group of Eight summit in June, 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. "We need to set the target figures for the global CO2 emissions in 2012 and after."

She called for industrial nations to help emerging economies by offering energy-efficient technology.
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