Stakes are high in climate talks

       World leaders converge on New York and Pittsburgh this week for pivotal talks in the two-year effort to remake global climate rules,with success far from assured.
       In New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is opening a top-level "Climate Summit" today, kicking off a week filled with policy debates, meetings and the informal chatter of diplomats attempting to close in on a deal.
       Climate negotiators have spent the last two years working toward a makeor-break summit in Copenhagen this December, which is expected to ink new targets for global emissions beyond 2012,when the Kyoto Protocol expires.
       Mr Ban has called on leaders attending this week's meetings to "publicly commit to sealing a deal in Copenhagen", amid concerns that time is running out.
       Despite months of extensive talks,sharp differences still exist between rich and poor countries over a future climate change treaty, with funding for reform emerging as one the key sticking points.
       Climate negotiators from the world's 17 largest developing and developed economies met in Washington last week for talks.
       "I think there was some narrowing of differences," Todd Stern, the US special envoy for climate change, said after the two-day talks.
       But he acknowledged "there are plenty of differences that remain".
       A series of meetings this autumn,beginning with those at the United Nations and the G20 next week, aims "fundamentally to narrow differences in an effort to get us toward a successful outcome in Copenhagen", he said.
       Environment expert Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations warned against a "very dangerous" temptation to use the UN summit to crank up pressure for a final deal in Copenhagen.
       "It will be a much better outcome if the heads of state set a realistic agenda for their negotiators," he said.
       The UN negotiations are still only in their formative stages, Mr Levi added.
       At the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh of the world's biggest industrialised and developing nations, which account for 80% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, leaders are expected to discuss the contentious question of who will pay for reform.
       Clarification, Mr Stern said, is needed on where the money will come from,through which institutions it is channelled and how financing decisions will be determined.
       On Friday, European Union leaders called on rich countries to provide at least $7.3 billion next year to help poor nations tackle climate change.
       "The G20 should recognise the need to [address] urgent climate financing needs in developing countries," the EU leaders said in a statement.