Economy woes weigh on U.N. climate talks

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - U.N.-led climate talks began inGermany on Monday on a global warming pact amid calls forcaution in supporting biofuels which cut carbon emissions butstoke food prices.

Environmental groups accused delegates in Bonn of being tooleisurely. A draft climate change statement by the group ofeight leading rich nations -- for release at a G8 meet nextmonth -- suggested the U.S. was balking at emissions targets.

Both the Bonn and G8 meetings are meant to feed into UNtalks to get a global climate deal by the end of next year inCopenhagen, to come into force after the first round of theKyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The present Kyoto pact caps the greenhouse gases of some 37industrialised countries, but not those of the world's top twoemitters -- the United States and China.

"Work should start here without delay ... the volume ofwork on the road to Copenhagen is huge and the time is short,"the European Union told the first session in Bonn.

The U.S. is blocking efforts for the G8 summit to settargets for cutting greenhouse gases by 2020, according to adraft seen by Reuters, preferring to discuss these at a "majoreconomies meeting", a U.S. initiative, on the fringe of the G8.

Draft statements showed no suggested U.S. emissions targetsfor either meeting.

The main sticking point in climate talks is how to splitthe cost of re-deploying the world's entire energy system awayfrom fossil fuels, and especially how soon emerging economiesshould accept caps on their greenhouse gas emissions.

U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson told senior officialsfrom more than 160 countries gathered in Bonn that it was tooearly for substantial outcomes. UN officials said that definiteagreement on emissions targets would come only next year.

"No-one can tell you that today," said Harald Dovland,chair of a UN group steering talks on targets for richcountries. "That'll be in Copenhagen," he told Reuters.

COST

Greenpeace International's Bill Hare said the Bonn talkswere heading into trouble unless countries offered "quiteconcrete ideas", and referred to climate science suggestingglobal emissions must peak in the next 10 years to have thebest chance to avoid dangerous warming.

The Bonn talks coincide with criticism of policies to cutgreenhouse gases -- especially support for biofuels, as well ascarbon taxes and emissions trading -- which stoke soaringenergy and food prices.

Racing food prices have sparked riots in developing nationssuch as Haiti and a record oil price has hurt motorists,prompting protests and blockades in Europe. These events,together with an economic slowdown, threaten to distractattention from climate change.

"They're absolutely right to worry about food and energycosts but not addressing climate change would probably increaseboth," the U.N.'s climate chief Yvo de Boer told Reuters onMonday, referring for example to crop damage from droughts.

The head of the U.N.'s climate agency (UNFCCC) rejected theidea that carbon-cutting biofuels should be banned, afterdriving up food prices by using food crops such as corn to makean ethanol alternative to gasoline.

"I think biofuels are a very important part of thesolution," he said. Another U.N. agency, the Food andAgricultural Organisation, hosts a summit this week in Rome todebate high food prices.