INTERVIEW-Obama To Give Extra Push To Climate Talk

About 190 countries are trying to craft a broader climate treaty by December to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Barack Obama will give fresh momentum to talks for a new global pact to fight global warming, although countries still need to clear up issues such as funding for developing nations, a top U.N. official said on Wednesday.

About 190 countries are trying to craft a broader climate treaty by December to replace the Kyoto Protocol that only binds wealthy nations to emissions targets between 2008 and 2012.

Rich and poor countries remain divided over funds for clean energy investment and technology transfer, as well as new targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for causing droughts, floods and disease.

"President-elect Obama has said some very encouraging things about his domestic ambitions and his will to engage internationally," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters.

"I think that will be a very constructive contribution to the process as we move forward," said de Boer, in Tokyo for a global meeting of transport ministers discussing climate change.

Obama, who takes over from President George W. Bush on Jan. 20, has said he plans to cut U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases, now about 17 percent above 1990 levels, back to 1990 levels by 2020.

By mid-century, he wants U.S. emissions to fall by 80 percent below 1990 levels.

The plans are far more ambitious than those under Bush, who rejected the Kyoto Protocol and predicted U.S. emissions would keep rising until they peaked in 2025.

CONFIDENT

De Boer said he was "quite confident" Obama would commit to emissions reduction targets from 2013 at the December U.N. climate meeting in the Danish capital.

"He's stated publicly that he wants to work towards an agreement in Copenhagen," de Boer said. "He's stated that he wants to put a national policy package in place."

A U.S. commitment to a target is widely regarded as a crucial part of any post-Kyoto treaty, with countries unwilling to sign up to new goals without initiatives from big emitters such as United States, China, India and Brazil.

Japanese industries, for example, have resisted new national targets, with the country at risk of failing to achieve even its 2008-2012 Kyoto target of cutting emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels.

But a raft of issues remain to be resolved before Copenhagen, with preparatory talks in Poznan, Poland last month ending with developing nations accusing industrialised states of doing too little to help them cope with climate change.

Clarity was needed on emissions reduction targets by industrialised countries and what developing countries would do to mitigate climate change, de Boer said.

Under Kyoto, big developing nations such as China and India are not required to curb their emissions during the pact's first phase of 2008-12. But the booming economies of both nations have made them top greenhouse gas emitters, driving calls for them to commit to emissions reduction targets.

Talks also needed to clear up the issues of financing to help developing countries and how funding would be governed.

"Without those four issues being resolved, I think it will be very difficult to settle many of the more technical details," de Boer said.

The transport ministers' gathering in Tokyo aims to send a political message on how the transport sector, which accounts for more than 20 percent of mankind's carbon dioxide emissions, is tackling climate change and air pollution.

But ministers from China and Indonesia decided not to come, while it was unclear if India's minister would attend.