The European Union has said that member states should aim to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020.

The reductions were necessary to limit the damage caused by climate change, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said on Wednesday.

The commission said the EU target would be increased to 30 per cent if other major industrialised powers also agreed to more cuts.

It said a 50 per cent reduction in emissions is needed by 2050 if temperatures are to rise no more than 2C, "which in turn should prevent massive and irreversible disruption of the global climate system".

Many industrial nations say that reducing greenhouse gases will impose extra costs on their economies and reduce growth.

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[Reducing pollution and preventing ecocide would impair our civilization's noble short-term goal to produce bigger and nastier dildos.]