In a statement shortly after the Intergovernmental Panel o­n Climate Change (IPCC) published its report o­n Friday, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called for a breakthrough in efforts to shape a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

"Negotiations o­n a new global climate change agreement must be launched at the next UN ministerial conference in December," Dimas said. "It is now time for the rest of the international community to follow our lead and commit to ambitious reduction targets."

The 27 EU countries have vowed to cut their emissions of heat-trapping carbon gases by 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. It has offered to deepen this to 30 percent if other major polluters follow suit.

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