Stavros Dimas, the environment commissioner of the European Union, called on the trade bloc to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from 1990 levels as a sign of leadership leading into the Copenhagen climate change summit in two weeks.

The Swedish environment minister said the EU is close to making such a pledge, but not quite ready yet. The EU is seeing as waiting for a commitment from the United States or China.

The EU’s current target is to curb emissions by 20 percent by the end of the next decade. But Dimas said this week that the EU should move unilaterally to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2020 because it was the best way to secure a deal that would help limit the rise in global temperatures to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius, the internationally accepted goal.

“In my opinion, the 30 percent commitment by the European Union would be better in our negotiations,” Dimas told the press. “The moral pressure would be much stronger on the developed countries and developing countries alike.”