U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged European Union leaders Wednesday not to abandon their goals to combat climate change in the face of growing pressures from the global financial crisis.
"This is not the time to abandon a climate change agenda which is important for the future," he told reporters in Brussels, ahead of a summit of E.U. leaders.
"The climate change agenda is part of the solution for many of the problems we face as a global economy," he said, noting that high oil prices and less energy security "makes it more important that we deal with a long-term policy."
Last year, E.U. leaders vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. They also pledged to have renewable energies make up 20% of total energy sources.
But many E.U. nations have begun to baulk at the costs involved and the consequences to industry of the climate change goals.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, after talks with Brown, also urged the leaders to press ahead and not abandon Europe's leadership role.
"It is important to understand that climate change is not an optional extra," he said. "It's a challenge, a real challenge that does not disappear because of the financial crisis."
"If we now give any signal that we are not really committed to doing it, others will not have the incentive to do it," he went on.
Barroso said that, given more encouraging signals on climate change from the U.S., "it would be a complete mistake coming from Europe, saying after all, this is not so urgent."