Yahoo News 26 Nov 07;
Industrial nations should help poorer nations to develop renewable energy from the wind and sun, Germany's environment minister said Monday, days before a conference on the world's response to climate change.
"Prosperity for everyone is possible and it is compatible with the environment," Sigmar Gabriel said in an interview with Bild newspaper.
"We must put economic growth on a different energy basis, by using renewable energy such as sun and water.
"And we must use energy far more efficiently than before."
Gabriel said Germany could be proud of its stance when it went into the talks on the Indonesian island of Bali starting next week.
"Germany has a pioneering role," he said. "We have not only set ourselves the most ambitious target for climate protection, we are also the only country that will arrive at the conference with a concrete climate protection package, proving that we are taking this target seriously."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made combatting climate change a central goal of her coalition government and has set a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
That exceeds the 20-percent target set by the European Union for the same period.
The December 3-14 conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must set down a roadmap for negotiations over the next two years that will have to deliver massive emissions cuts beyond 2012 and shore up support for poor countries facing the brunt of climate change.
