CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – Old splits between rich and poor nations re-emerged on Tuesday over a plan to slow global warming, but both sides maintained a “balanced package” is the goal of U.N. talks in Mexico.

After an opening day largely dominated by ceremony, almost 200 countries showed little sign of compromise on past demands that have brought deadlock since last year’s Copenhagen summit fell short of a binding U.N. climate treaty.

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – Washington claimed progress on Monday in easing rifts with Beijing on ways to fight global warming as U.N. climate talks got under way in Mexico with warnings about the rising costs of inaction.

The United States and China, the world’s largest economies and top greenhouse gas emitters, have accused each other of doing little to combat global warming in 2010, contributing to deadlock in the U.N. talks among almost 200 nations.

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – Almost 200 nations at U.N. climate talks in Mexico must compromise on a modest package of measures or face escalating damage from floods, droughts and rising seas, scientists and politicians said on Monday.

“Our relation with nature is reaching a critical point,” Mexican President Felipe Calderon told the opening of the two-week talks in a tightly guarded hotel by the Caribbean with warships patrolling off the coast.

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – World temperatures could soar by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by the 2060s in the worst case of global climate change and require an annual investment of $270 billion just to contain rising sea levels, studies suggested on Sunday.

Such a rapid rise, within the lifetimes of many young people today, is double the 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) ceiling set by 140 governments at a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen last year and would disrupt food and water supplies in many parts of the globe.

OSLO (Reuters) – Small island states want U.N. climate talks in Mexico next week to set an end-2011 deadline for agreeing a new treaty as a step to slow the rise in sea levels, a spokeswoman said.

Many other nations, including the United States, fear that setting a time limit may be counter-productive after the U.N.’s Copenhagen climate summit failed to meet a 2009 deadline for a binding deal.

OSLO (Reuters) – The Maldives took a step on Wednesday towards a goal of becoming the first “carbon neutral” nation by 2020 with an audit showing its citizens emit the same amount of greenhouse gases as tourists flying to its islands.

The audit, of the emissions by 310,000 citizens living in the Indian Ocean archipelago, is a prelude to a plan next year to seek investments in solar, wind or wave power and limit fuel imports that cost 15 percent of gross domestic product.

LONDON/OSLO (Reuters) – This year is so far tied for the hottest year in a temperature record dating back to 1850 in a new sign of a warming trend, the three major institutes which calculate global warming estimates told Reuters.

U.N. climate talks resume next week in Cancun, Mexico, where expectations are no longer for a comprehensive deal to slow warming, but smaller progress for example to curb deforestation, in a bid to agree a pact next year or later.

OSLO, Nov 24 (Reuters) – The world will seek to break a
U.S.-China standoff and agree modest steps to rein in global
warming at U.N. talks in Mexico next week amid worries that the
first climate treaty since 1992 may still be years away.

Most nations have few hopes for the meeting of environment
ministers from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 in the Caribbean resort of
Cancun after U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders
failed to agree a treaty at last year’s U.N. Copenhagen summit.

OSLO (Reuters) – The world will seek to break a U.S.-China standoff and agree modest steps to rein in global warming at U.N. talks in Mexico next week amid worries that the first climate treaty since 1992 may still be years away.

Most nations have few hopes for the meeting of environment ministers from November 29 to December 10 in the Caribbean resort of Cancun after U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders failed to agree a treaty at last year’s U.N. Copenhagen summit.

GARDERMOEN, Norway (Reuters) – Costs of combating global warming will rise inexorably if the world fails to cap greenhouse gases by 2015, but new technologies can curb the price, the head of the U.N. climate panel said on Monday.

Rajendra Pachauri also told Reuters he felt “reasonably optimistic” that a U.N. climate meeting in Mexico from November 29 to December 10 would make at least modest progress toward curbing climate change.