September U.N. summit seen key to climate deal

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - A drive to agree a U.N. climate pact in Copenhagen in December risks failure unless world leaders revive bogged-down negotiations at a U.N. summit in New York on September 22, experts say.

Recriminations between rich and poor nations about how to share out curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, and scant aid from recession-hit rich nations, mean the world is far from a deal. A draft treaty is an unmanageable 200 pages long.

"Now the onus is on heads of government," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program, told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.

He said that a one-day climate summit at U.N. headquarters on September 22 was a chance to show world leaders that "there is a high risk that a deal will not emerge from Copenhagen" unless they get more involved in spurring the negotiations.

And there is a lot to sort out in the next three months, according to participants in September 8-10 Reuters summit.

Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said a plan by U.S. President Barack Obama -- struggling to secure healthcare reforms before turning to climate -- to cut U.S. greenhouse emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020 was unacceptably weak.

"We don't accept that, it's very poor," he said, adding that the goal should be "closer to something beyond a 20 percent reduction." The U.S. 2020 goal is the weakest of any developed nation, but Obama promises a deep 80 percent cut by 2050.

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