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 towards curbing climate change.

OSLO (Reuters) – Poor nations accused donors on Thursday of failing to keep a promise of extra climate aid, which the U.N. says will be the “golden key” to successful global warming talks in Mexico this month.

“The promises (of aid) are there, and they keep coming, but we don’t see anything on the ground,” said Bruno Sekoli of Lesotho, who will chair the group of least developed countries (LDCs) at the United Nations’ negotiations in Mexico from November 29 to December 10.

OSLO (Reuters) – Bleak scientific findings that over-fishing will empty the oceans of big fish and leave just small creatures such as jellyfish or plankton seem based on flawed data, a study said on Wednesday.

An international team of scientists concluded that a far wider diversity of creatures was likely to survive — from predators such as sharks and tuna to tiny molluscs and algae — in a possible reprieve for the diversity of marine life.

OSLO (Reuters) – A tiny U.N. fund that is starting to help developing nations adapt to climate change could expand to manage part of a planned $100 billion aid mechanism to be debated at U.N. talks in Mexico, the chair of the fund said.

Developing nations reckon the existing Adaptation Fund, which signed its first deal last week to give $8.6 million to Senegal to fight coastal erosion, could overcome objections from donors to win a wider role, Farrukh Iqbal Khan told Reuters.

This is the sixth in a series on major climate change themes

By Alister Doyle

(Reuters) – Low expectations mar sentiment for a new U.N. climate deal ahead of talks among 194 nations in Cancun, Mexico, from late November to mid-December, repeating the mood held before talks in Copenhagen a year ago.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN CANCUN?

Environment ministers will try to agree on some of the building blocks of a U.N. deal to combat global warming. But almost all have given up hopes of a new treaty any time soon. The ultimate aim of the talks is to find a successor to the existing Kyoto Protocol, which limits emissions of rich nations until 2012.

OSLO (Reuters) – Almost 200 nations meet in Mexico this month to try to agree a “green fund” for poor countries and other steps toward an elusive climate treaty amid warnings that inaction is driving up the costs of tackling global warming.

After failure to agree a treaty at last year’s summit in Copenhagen, ambitions for 2010 have been lowered to a modest package that includes a fund to manage aid to poor nations, new ways to share clean technology and to protect tropical forests.

LONDON (Reuters) – Rising greenhouse gas levels mean the planet is very likely to become warmer, threatening more disasters such as Russia’s record drought and Pakistan’s deadly floods.

A warmer world is expected to place more risks on food supplies for a growing population. Changes in rainfall patterns could disrupt riverflows, water supplies and crops.

OSLO (Reuters) – Global losses from natural disasters could triple to $185 billion a year by 2100, excluding the impact of climate change, according to a report, which calls for a shift in focus from relief work to preventative measures.

The joint report by the United Nations and the World Bank, published on Thursday, said the number of people at risk of storms or earthquakes in large cities could double to 1.5 billion by 2050. Simple preventative measures could curb losses from natural disasters, it said, citing Bangladesh’s success in building shelters to protect against cyclones.

OSLO (Reuters) – Soaring greenhouse gas emissions in China and other emerging nations are eroding rich nations’ historical responsibility for causing global warming, and this could complicate U.N. talks starting in Mexico this month.

Washington says an unfair “Berlin Wall” separates a group of 40 industrialised countries, which are expected to cut emissions sharply by 2020, from other countries led by China which are due only to slow the rise in their emissions by 2020.

OSLO (Reuters) – Soaring greenhouse gas emissions in China and other emerging nations are eroding rich nations’ historical responsibility for causing global warming, and this could complicate U.N. talks starting in Mexico this month.

Washington says an unfair “Berlin Wall” separates a group of 40 industrialized countries, which are expected to cut emissions sharply by 2020, from other countries led by China which are due only to slow the rise in their emissions by 2020.