Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen Thursday called on all countries to make prompt commitments to jointly tackle the urgent issue of ever-worsening climate change.

In his new year address, Rasmussen stressed time and again the importance of environmental protection.

The increasing import of oil and gas in many countries indicates the soaring global energy consumption, he said.

World leaders should plan to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources, further develop green energy to protect the fragile global climate while striving to revive their national economy and improve people's livelihood in the new year, he added.

An agreement was reached by the European Union leaders last month on a climate change package aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, making 20 percent energy saving and bringing renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of total energy use.

The EU's package plan was approved following the Poznan climate talks in Poland, the United Nation's annual summit on climate change, which produced scant progress towards a possible deal in Copenhagen in December.

The Copenhagen negotiations are scheduled to ink a new global treaty on fighting global warming to succeed the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol which is to expire in 2012.

"The overall political message that we have sent to the rest of the world is that Europe is taking the lead," Rasmussen said after the European leaders agreed on the package plan.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2009)