UK targets "all issues" at London climate meet

An oil refinery is seen in Norco, Louisiana August 15, 2008.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain aims to break a deadlock in U.N. climate talks when it hosts the world's biggest emitters this weekend, as doubts grow that a summit in 50 days will agree a new pact.

U.N. talks to widen the existing Kyoto Protocol still face wide open issues from funding and carbon emissions targets to legal basics such as how many new pacts countries must sign.

"The deadline is concentrating minds," said British Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband on Thursday, of the December 7-18 meeting in Copenhagen.

London hosts the latest major economies forum (MEF), a series of meetings involving the world's 17 biggest polluters, meant to bolster but separate to the U.N. negotiations.

"It is going to be covering all the major issues: finance, mitigation, forestry, technology," said Miliband of the October 18-19 meeting.

Miliband cited gathering action from India to Indonesia but also a huge challenge as the United States struggles to craft its own concrete negotiating position by December.

"We are determined to throw everything at it to get a successful deal at Copenhagen and the MEF is an important step. It is right to say we're embarked on a very tough task."

It was vital that the United States "bring a number to Copenhagen," Miliband said on a 2020 carbon-cutting number, but that may not happen given the U.S. Congress is unlikely to agree a supporting domestic climate bill by then. The December meeting would fail to produce a deal but may meet more modest objectives, said analysts. The talks may need extra time into 2010.

SKEPTIC

The London MEF meeting is the latest in a series initiated by the United States to bolster formal U.N. negotiations often bogged down in intricate legal language.

The most significant was a leaders sessions in July in L'Aquila, Italy where the world's 17 biggest polluters such as the United States, Europe and China recognized the importance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

"The formal processes of the U.N are important in this but it's absolutely clear we can't just have those formal processes if we're going to get the agreement we need," said Miliband.

A new rift opened in the last session of U.N. talks, which ended last week in Bangkok, on whether to sign a new pact or add an attachment to Kyoto. Developing countries are not bound by Kyoto and were suspicious of efforts to "kill it off."

The problem boiled down to climate maths -- offers so far would result in 2020 greenhouse gas emissions of 48 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Countries must shave that to 44 billion tonnes to stay on course for no more than 2 degrees warming, UK government analysts said.

In London, leading scientists said that global warming would leave the Arctic Ocean ice-free during summertime within 20 years, threatening further warming and wildlife such as polar bears and seals.

Among new promises, Finland said it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent or more from 1990 levels by 2050, matching targets by several EU nations and the United States.

The Maldives said that it would hold the world's first underwater cabinet meeting on Saturday to highlight risks that global warming will raise ocean levels by melting ice sheets. Ministers would use scuba gear in a shallow turquise lagoon.

"We will do anything, everything, to live in this country," Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam told Reuters.