Finance ministers said falling short on climate

By Gerard Wynn

JIMBARAN, Indonesia (Reuters) - Finance ministers meeting on the fringes of climate talks in Bali are not doing enough to find the money to fight global warming, Indonesia's president said on Tuesday.

More than 10 finance ministers and nearly 40 governments are meeting to discuss ways to pay for steps tackle to climate change, the first such meeting on the fringes of annual U.N. climate talks.

"Ministers of finance can and should play a much larger and more active role in responding to climate change, both domestically and internationally," President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono said.

Government ministries including energy, industry, forestry and agriculture also had to take part, he added.

"That is why this meeting is historic and so important," he told the finance ministers, whose meeting followed similar trade talks at the weekend.

The ministers come from countries including Indonesia, Australia, Indonesia, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand and the Netherlands.

"Climate change cannot be the icing on the cake of development policies," said World Bank chief Robert Zoellick, who offered to host follow-up talks on climate change next spring.

Ministers discussed climate policies ranging from carbon markets to incentives for people to put solar panels on the roof at home, to the warnings of former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern that inaction could spark a global recession.

"This (climate change) is much too important to leave to environment ministers," Stern told the meeting.

"The comprehensiveness of the problem (demands) heads of state and finance ministers are involved. This is about low-carbon growth not low growth, it's not about trading growth against climate responsibility."

The 190-nation talks in Bali are meant to launch negotiations on a pact to extend or replace the Kyoto Protocol, whose first phase ends on Dec 31, 2012. A total of 36 industrialized countries are legally bound to meet emissions targets between 2008-2012 under Kyoto but developing nations are exempt.

The December 3-14 climate talks are finely balanced on how far poor nations should join industrialized countries in the climate fight, with the likes of Canada and Japan saying major developing countries should be involved. Poor nations argue such action could leave them in poverty.

Trade ministers at the weekend bickered over whether rich or poor countries would benefit most from an EU-U.S. proposal to open markets to climate-friendly goods.

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(Extra reporting by Gde Anugrah Arka, Editing by David Fogarty)