BRUSSELS:

The European Union yesterday agreed a pact to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent within 13 years unilaterally and pledged to push for an agreement with the US and other industrialised countries to cut them by 30 per cent by the same deadline.

European environment ministers made the target for 2020 binding on all 27 EU countries, but are yet to agree on how to ‘share the burden’ of combating climate change, with countries such as Britain and Germany making much bigger cuts and other high-growth but less developed countries allowed more leeway. British officials, hailing the pact as “an historic milestone,” said the aim was to reach a deal on ‘burden-sharing’ before the summit of G8 group of industrialised countries, including Russia, in Heiligendamm in Germany, in June.