The United States and China are going to have to offer greater reductions in their CO2 emissions than they have hitherto done, according to the Swedish Minister for the Environment Andreas Carlgren, who leads the European Union’s negotiating team.

“That is absolutely vital if we are to reach our goals of keeping temperature rise below two degrees. The European Union is ready to increase its reductions from 20 percent to 30 percent, but that means that others will have to put something on the table,” Carlgren says on the first day of the UN’s COP15 Climate Summit.

“The end game will be about what the United States and China deliver. It would be somewhat astounding if President Obama comes to Copenhagen and only offers what he has already said,” Carlgren says at a news conference.

The United States has promised to cut its CO2 emissions with the equivalent of 3-4 percent compared with 1990 levels.

And while the European Union acknowledges China’s promise to use its energy more efficiently - cutting back on energy consumption per produced unit by 40-45 percent in 2020 - economic growth is expected to erode cutbacks.

“We expect increased reductions from our Chinese friends and colleagues,” Carlgren says, adding that the European Union will be holding back on its possible 30 percent until the later stages of the COP15 conference, when heads of state and government are present.