PREVIEW - Hopes pinned on finance at U.N. climate talks
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO (Reuters) - About 170 nations will meet in Germany next week to work on a new United Nations climate treaty with hopes for progress pinned most on ways to raise billions of dollars to help poor nations cope with global warming.
The June 1-12 talks between senior officials in Bonn will be the first to review formal draft texts about a sweeping U.N. deal due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December to involve all countries in fighting global warming.
Over 120 pages of draft texts indicate deadlock between rich and poor nations on a core dispute over how to share out curbs on greenhouse gases, released mainly by use of fossil fuels.
To avoid that standoff, finance could be an area to build confidence.
"One thing that can usefully be done is finance -- working out how funds can be mobilised for developing nations would be a huge positive influence on the negotiations," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters.
"If there's no movement on emissions then maybe an agreement can be made on finance," he said.
The Bonn meeting is the second of six U.N. climate talks due this year, including Copenhagen.
Developing nations such as China and India say the rich have stoked warming since the Industrial Revolution and should do far more to cut emissions by 2020. Continued...
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