EU leaders agree to stick to climate change plan despite economic crisis

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that EU leaders agreed to stick to ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020, despite the financial crisis and economic slowdown. Sarkozy said there was unanimous support among the 27 EU leaders at the climate summit talks to try to get a deal by the end of the year on finalizing the plan which could cost billions of euros to implement. However, the French premier said "everyone had to shoulder his responsibilities" to get a deal done. Poorer EU member states from eastern Europe pushed for changes to the plan arguing it would be too much of a burden on their economies to make further cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.