British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende, said the world is close to "catastrophic tipping points" in an open letter released Thursday, on the eve of an EU leaders' meeting in Finland. The pair say that climate change and energy security should be treated as two parts of the same issue — "climate security" — in order to address it.

"We have a window of only 10-15 years to take the steps we need to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points," the letter says.

"We know we can meet this challenge. Europe has the opportunity to lead the world in making the technology transition to a low carbon economy that will be necessary over the next few decades.

"The technologies are already available or within reach, and there are real potential economic benefits to European market leadership in this area."

It advocates "much more ambitious" energy partnerships with countries including India and China and calls for tighter caps in the EU emissions trading scheme after 2012, possibly even linking it to non-EU countries.

Europe's political leaders are meeting up for one day in Lahti, Finland, Friday and are expected to focus on boosting innovation.

EU unveils action plan to cut energy consumption

The European Commission unveiled Thursday an action plan to cut energy consumption by 20 percent annually from 2020, part of the European Union's new drive for a comprehensive policy on natural resources.

The plan contains 75 measures that the Commission, the EU's executive body, hopes will be adopted by the end of 2008. It sets energy efficiency standards for 14 kinds of products, from household to industrial goods.

The measures are aimed at making appliances, buildings, transport and generators more efficient, and Brussels believes they could save 100 billion euros (126 billion dollars) a year by 2020 if they are implemented.

"By saving energy, Europe will help address climate change, as well as its rising (energy) consumption and its dependence on fossil fuels imported from outside the Union's borders," Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said.

The outline of the plan was endorsed by EU leaders in June, and aims to save power at a time when the 25-nation bloc is focused on energy supply, particularly from Russia, which meets almost a quarter of its natural gas and oil needs.

The Commission hopes to implement the plan over the next six years.

Source: Agence France-Presse