MADRID: The EU said it will pursue a new deal on global warming through the Group of 20, since last month's UN climate conference of nearly 200 nations led to unwieldy negotiations that didn't accomplish much.
Herman van Rompuy, the new EU president, said halting global warming remains a key target for the Europeans whose proposal for ambitious pollution cuts by 2020 found no takers at the December climate conference in Copenhagen.
"The European Union must continue to be the driving force" of the global climate change debate, said Van Rompuy. The EU leaders will meet Feb. 11 to discuss where to go next.
Van Rompuy spoke in Madrid, where he was meeting with the bloc's two other top executives: Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who is assuming the rotating EU presidency, and Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission chief.
"We need to change our negotiating strategy," Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos said. He did not elaborate, but Spanish officials said the EU is keen to pursue a climate deal through the G-20, rather than the United Nations.
A senior EU official also said such a summit could produce a meaningful agreement, without having heads of state meet through the night to bicker over the wording of such a deal, as they did in Copenhagen.