Italy FM warns leaders ahead of climate summit

Franco Frattini warned world leaders their credibility will suffer if they failed to make concrete commitments at Copenhagen climate summit.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Saturday warned world leaders their credibility could suffer if they failed to make concrete commitments at next month's Copenhagen climate summit.

"Our credibility in the eyes of global public opinion is at stake," said Frattini at a conference in Milan, Italian media reported.

"Our commitment is to contain global warming and to reduce (polluting) emissions by 20 percent and we are ready, if our other partners follow us, even to reduce it by 30 percent," he said.

The European Union has pledged to reduce emissions by 20 percent compared to their 1990 levels by 2020.

The EU says it is willing to aim for a 30-percent reduction if an international agreement is reached which obliges other developed countries to make similar cuts.

Scientists say developed countries should reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 and 40 percent by 2020, when compared with 1990 levels, in order to limit a rise in temperatures to two degrees Celsius.

The UN climate summit in Copenhagen on December 7-18 aims to build a post-2012 global treaty on tackling climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol.