Sarkozy and Lula call for climate concessions

The leaders of France and Brazil joined forces on Saturday to press the United States and China into making significant concessions at next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen.

In a joint document, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil urged rich industrialised countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 80 percent from their 1990 levels by 2050.

They called on emerging countries to seek low carbon growth, with financing help from richer countries, and to take steps to slow the rate at which their greenhouse gas emissions rise by 2050.                                           

Declaring the document signed with Sarkozy "more than a declaration of intent, it is a climate bible", Lula told reporters the United States and China had to show more boldness in accepting commitments at Copenhagen. "I have no doubt that our American friends and our Chinese friends will accept their responsibilities," Sarkozy told a joint news conference.                                           

Just before the meeting in Paris, Brazil pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by between 36.1 percent and 38.9 percent, largely by controlling deforestation in the Amazon region. The two leaders will try to drum up wider support for their initiative before the Copenhagen summit at the end of December.                                           

Sarkozy, who will discuss the initiative with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, said he hoped to travel to Brazil and Africa and would attend the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago at the end of the month.