European Union leaders are due to meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to discuss tough measures to halt climate change.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is hoping to get the 27 member states to agree to a series of climate protection goals. These include binding targets to cut CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2020, as well as increasing the use of bio-fuels and renewable energy. However France and 10 other countries, including several in central Europe, have already indicated that they are uncomfortable with binding targets or quotas.

The EU currently accounts for about 14 percent of global greenhouse emissions. Yet, as emerging economies such as China and India grow, Europe's share of the worlds emissions are receding. China is already second only to the United States in its CO2 pollution. On Monday China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao announced that the country would do more to save energy and cut pollution, but he didn't set any specific targets.

The German press looked Tuesday at climate protection policies in Europe and in China and called for a market-friendly approach.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Those in the wealthy western industrialized nations who insist on the right to disproportionately emit greenhouse gases are propagating global apartheid. It is almost grotesque to be continuously mentioning the increase in pollution being produced by China and India. What incentive is there for these or other countries to try to attain wealth and prosperity by other means, when not even the richest on earth are willing or able to do so? ...

"Climate change cannot be halted with small measures or without making any changes to consumer and lifestyle habits ... Embarking on the road whose destination is a CO2-free economy is simply too great a task. ... Politicians cannot just wait and hope that as many people as possible will start feeling guilty about their behavior. Instead, they have to create a basic framework which then applies to everyone. The more market-friendly the anti-climate change measures are, the better they will fit into the existing system.

"The next one or two years will show if the member states of the European Union are capable of protecting the climate ... The current public mood presents a big opportunity, not only in Europe but also in the USA. If this chance is not seized, then the sceptics will have been proven right."

The left-wing Die Tageszeitung writes.

"To reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in a market economy, it has to be made more expensive ... The easy way is to implement an environment tax: The increase in income from energy consumption then flows directly towards reducing other taxes and expenditures.

"Some European Union countries obviously want to prevent an agreement on binding emissions targets -- and do not want to accept penalties in the case of failing to meet these commitments.

"Germany is big enough to play a leading role. How this can work is shown in the way California has been successful in its environmental policy for decades. And German companies play a leading role in exactly those engineering sectors which are most needed for energy saving measures.

"Consumers and suppliers -- the market -- are happy to adjust to each other, provided they get clear and sensible rules. That is what they should be given."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"China is going green ... That's good news for the rest of the world, even if the Chinese are only doing this out of their own interests. China has to be more thrifty with its energy if it wants to be able to pay the bill for its massive economic growth.

"But China is a long way from playing an active role in climate protection. Beijing sees this as the duty of those industrial countries which have been responsible for the CO2 increase in the atmosphere up to now. Although there have also been warnings about climate change within China itself, the leadership is not prepared to sacrifice its opportunities for wealth to the long-term benefit of the global climate.