EU sticks to greenhouse goals despite money fears
Leaders of the 27-nation European Union pledged Thursday they will stick to a pricey plan for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, saying the recent meltdown of financial markets must not deter efforts to combat global warming.
After presiding at a two-day EU summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that despite some misgivings about the cost, "climate change is so important that we cannot use the financial and economic crisis as a pretext for dropping it."
The summit capped weeks of turmoil that devastated financial markets around the globe, sparked fears of a serious economic slowdown and revealed EU governments stumped for a coherent approach to protect banks, mortgage lenders and depositors.
Only in the last 10 days did the EU put together a $2.3 trillion emergency bailout for the banking sector that was approved at the summit.
Taking a cue from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the leaders called for a global approach to revamping the world's financial system in hopes of preventing a repeat of the credit crisis.
Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso are to meet with President Bush on Saturday at Camp David, Md., to lay the groundwork for a global summit to overhaul the financial system.
Ideas that the Europeans discussed included a meeting of the world's major economic powers including China, Russia and India in November, possibly in New York, similar to the 1944 meeting in Bretton Woods, N.H., that laid down rules for international trade and financial relations.
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