European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. (Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images)
Contributions from world governments are “not yet where we should be if we want Copenhagen to succeed,” Barroso told reporters in Nanjing, China.
World leaders, including President Obama, will be attending the conference in Copenhagen, which runs Dec. 9-17.
“Only a week before the Copenhagen UN conference on Climate Change we will stress the need for an ambitious and global result, which includes structures to finance mitigation,” Barroso said.
This comes after a statements made on Nov. 25, by the White House to reduce greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020. The United States is currently the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, after China took top place several years ago.
The European Union (EU) said in October that they want to make sure the temperature does not go two degrees Celsius (around four degrees Fahrenheit) above what it was at pre-industrial levels. The EU says this could be achieved by reducing global emissions, and has pressed for countries to reduce emissions by 50 percent of current levels by 2050.
Barroso was hopeful of the outcome of the climate talks. “There is a lot we can achieve together also in economic recovery and the reform of international financial structures,” he said.
“At the end if we just concentrate on the reasons not to do more, we'll not achieve the necessary result,” he added.
The EU will differentiate responsibilities for developing and developed nations.
Last July, the G8 Summit failed to produce any legally binding action addressing climate change.
