The European Union (EU) on Tuesday called for a deeper partnership with
China to tackle the challenge of climate change.
The message was delivered by Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose
country holds the current six-month EU presidency, at the China-EU Business
Summit held in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.
"Energy conservation and clean technologies are part of our common goal of
reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in order to control climate change," he
said in a keynote speech delivered at the business forum attended by some 500
senior business leaders from China and EU countries.
Describing EU-China cooperation in climate change as "very close and
fruitful", the prime minister said "further deepening (of the) partnership in
climate change should be envisaged."
"Without wide international cooperation, we will be unable to reach our
goals," Vanhanen added.
European and Asian leaders on Monday made a declaration on confronting global
warming at their biennial Asia-Europe Summit (ASEM) in Helsinki, calling for the
widest possible cooperation to deal with the challenge.
Saying that climate change and energy security were interrelated, the leaders
believed more international cooperation was needed to promote the development,
transfer and deployment of low-carbon technology, and to help developing ASEM
countries possess cleaner technologies.
They also called for the enhancement of energy efficiency and the scaling up
of the use of new and renewable energy.