EU, US agree 15 years left to avert climate disaster: German FM

BERLIN (AFP) - The United States and the European Union agree that the next 15 years will be decisive in averting a global warming disaster but disagree on a strategy, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Sunday.

"I do not think that we are so far apart in our underlying analysis of the situation," Steinmeier told Deutschlandfunk radio.

He said Washington and Europe concurred that "politicians have at most another 15 years to take steps to ensure that climate change does not become a catastrophe."

But Steinmeier said while the US administration thinks climate change could be addressed by switching to cleaner energy sources, Europe insists that scientific advances must be accompanied by a new set of binding targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"We are not really arguing about the restrictions in themselves, but about which philosophy to adopt," he said.

"The United States believes we can manage climate change by rapidly developing new technologies. Well, yes, we need new technology and we must put as much money and creativity into developing it.

"But this alone will not be enough over the next 15 years. We need to accompany this with binding targets."