EU aims to set pace in fight on climate change

By Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders were poised on Thursday to agree a timetable for action on tackling climate change they hope will enable the bloc to set the pace in global talks next year.

The EU sees itself as a world leader in the fight against global warming after member states agreed last year to cut emissions by 2020 and increase the share of wind, solar, hydro and wave power in electricity output by the same date.

But failure to agree on the details by this time next year would delay EU laws and weaken the bloc in United Nations talks on curbing emissions with other countries, including the United States, in Copenhagen in November 2009.

EU leaders are aware that other countries are also preparing their economies for tougher climate change rules to come into force after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases that cause climate change, ends in 2012.

"The United States has started to invest in eco-technology and in renewables," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper.

"When they decide to do it on a massive scale, it will be hard for Europe to compete, at least if it doesn't decide to step on the accelerator right now."

The 27 EU member states are due to agree during a two-day summit in Brussels to enact legislation by next March.

The summit will also endorse calls for more transparency in financial markets following the global credit crisis and review a Franco-German plan to boost EU ties with Mediterranean states.