"US should do better on climate change"- Swedish Environment Minister

"We are really urging our American friends to raise their bids and make sure that they can commit to more," says Sweden's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren

"We welcome that the ambitions have changed dramatically compared to the previous administration, but still we expect more and we need more," Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's Environment Minister, told journalists at a meeting of EU Energy and Environment ministers in Åre, Sweden, who recently took over the revolving presidency of the European Union. Carlgren is encouraged that a US bill which seeks to reduce US emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by mid-century has already been approved by the House of Representatives and is on its way to the Senate.

"We see within that bill the possibilities of raising the ambitions, and we are really urging our American friends to raise their bids and make sure that they can commit to more," he said according to Reuters, adding that ”negotiations ahead of Copenhagen are still moving too slow. The EU has so far put 20 percent on the table but we want that to go higher and we want to bring others with us".

Carlgren said global negotiations ahead of Copenhagen were still moving too slow. "We want to speed up and the EU is now urgently calling on other parties to join us and to make sure that we can speed up and negotiations," he said.

(Adopted from a report by Matthew Goldstein from ARE, Sweden to Reuters Jul 23, 2009,

see http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE56M69B20090723)