Brussels, March 7:

EU leaders begin a key summit on Thursday, seeking to make “the most ambitious commitment ever to tackle climate change” which they hope will inspire the rest of the world community to do the same.

“Europe is at an important crossroads,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “If we act decisively now, we have a chance of effectively counteracting the dangers of climate change,” she added in an invitational message to her fellow EU leaders ahead of the two-day Brussels summit.

She hopes the other 26 EU member states’ leaders will agree on cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, from 1990 levels, and by 30 per cent if other developed and emerging economies, like China and India, join them.

A 20 per cent cut would save 100 billion euros and some 780 million tonnes of CO2 a year, according to figures from the EU’s executive Commission, keen to sell the issue as an economic as well as environmental winner.