UN climate talks will collapse without EU leadership, thinktank warns. South Centre urges Europe to lead major economies in committing to a second phase of the Kyoto protocol

Artur Runge-Metzger (left), Europe's lead negotiator, and Franz Perrez, Switzerland's ambassador for the environment, during a workshop at the UN climate talks in Bonn. Europe is key to successful climate negotiations, a thinktank warned today. Photograph: iisd

By John Vidal - The Guardian, UK

UN climate talks are on the brink of unravelling and will collapse within months unless the EU shows global leadership by committing to a second phase of the only legally binding international treaty for cutting carbon emissions, a leading thinktank warned on Thursday.

It came as new analysis from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) showed that developing countries have now pledged to cut more emissions than rich countries and have met all the conditions they signed up to at the Copenhagen and Cancún summits.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/16/un-climate-talks-collapse-eu-leadership