Warned of costs, world seeks way to fight warming

OSLO (Reuters) – U.N. climate talks in Kenya next week will hunt for new ways to fight global warming, stung by a warning that long-term inaction may trigger a cataclysmic economic downturn.

But delegates say the 189-nation talks from November 6-17 look unlikely to make any big breakthroughs and may shy away from setting a firm timetable for working out a successor to the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. plan for curbing global warming which runs out in 2012.

The
United Nations says progress is urgently needed, both on a global deal beyond 2012 and in working out how to help developing nations adapt to projected changes such as more droughts, floods and rising sea levels.

“The clock is ticking,” said Achim Steiner, head of the Nairobi-based U.N. Environment Program (UNEP). “We are in fact in some ways with our backs against the wall if you want to have a post-2012 regime in place. We need to keep moving.”

Reuters