The Danish government’s big ambition for a global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December next year, now comes under extreme pressure.

Earlier on in March 2007 EU countries were determined and agreed on a so-called 20-20-20 plan. The EU must in 2020 cut CO2 emissions with 20 percent, saving 20 percent through energy efficiency and collect 20 percent of energy supply from renewable sources.

At an EU summit today in Brussels, during the climate package discussion, several European countries led by Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Germany argued that the financial crisis should lead to the climate requirements for industry should be more lenient because the crisis already threatens to develop into an economic downturn with rising unemployment and recession in several countries.

Denmark had hoped that today’s summit could lead to a breakthrough in the difficult talks about how the Climate bill could be distributed between the 27 individual countries.

Today in the nationwide newspaper Berlingske Tidende the Danish Minister of Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard (C) said that the climate skeptic countries are wrong.

“It is clear that the financial crisis has some costs here and now. But energy is just more and more expensive. Therefore, increased energy efficiency is the road to a better national economy. “

Furthermore Connie Hedegaard thinks that the 27 countries should draw lessons from the current financial crisis and that it can help the countries in the endeavor of solving the climate crisis. She said:

“The world has shown that when the challenges are urgent enough and sufficiently acute, we can actually handle things. It is the same sort of leadership that is needed to to address the climate crisis.”

She is being backed up by EU commission president José Manuel Barroso. Yesterday he urged the 27 EU countries not to risk the fight for a better climate because of the current problems. Barroso warned that it will damage the EU’s credibility in the International negotiations if the climate ambitions are being withdrawn. It will put a global climate agreement at stake, he said.

At the same time the EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas warned, that it is a misunderstanding to withdraw the climate promises to alleviate the financial crisis. A climate agreement to the contrary assist governments to prevent similar crises in the future, because the agreement among other things, reduces EU dependence on imported energy, as it contributes for growth to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Angela Merkel has indicated that she still basically supports the EU’s climate package but she requires much more flexibility and a guarantee that secures the great German steel and automobile industries and other energy-intensive firms such as cement and aluminum factories being protected against unfair competition and furthermore receives some kind of discount.

Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, has simultaneously talked about postponing the climate agreement in the light of the financial crisis, so it would not - as scheduled fall into place in December in Copenhagen.

Furthermore the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on arrival at the EU summit in Brussels said that Poland expects that its coal-based fuel economy are protected from the adverse effects of climate plans. Poland, which uses large quantities of coal in its energy supply, threatened to lay veto on the EU’s ambitious climate plans, if there is no special attention given to their claims.

The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen urges the countries to come to an understanding about the need for climate package agreement now. Today shortly after his arrival in Brussels he made it clear that consensus in the EU on the climate package before new year is a prerequisite in order to get the rest of the world to sign a global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. He said:

“- Financial Crisis or not, it’s common sense to invest in energy efficiency. And the EU Commission’s proposal has taken into account countries such as Poland.”

Anders Fogh Rasmussen is under pressure of finding a solution to this problem before long and calls the utterances from some countries for “very worrying”.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen is going to discuss climate and energy-politics with Barroso in Brussels. Barroso and French president Sarkozy is some of the strongest allies in the pursuit of coming to an agreement about the climate package before the end of the year, where the climate-skeptical country Czech Republic takes the EU-presidency