CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – Almost 200 nations meet in Mexico beginning Monday to try to agree on modest steps to slow climate change, a gathering overshadowed by strains between the United States and China.

The meeting, in a sprawling “Moon Palace” resort by the Caribbean from November 29 to December 10, will seek to get negotiations back on track after last year’s acrimonious Copenhagen summit fell short of a binding U.N. treaty to slow global warming.

LONDON (Reuters) – Investors in “green” assets hope that upcoming U.N. climate talks in Mexico will salvage a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2011, and in the meantime widen and simplify existing carbon markets.

The U.N. process could boost the private sector if it builds trust in global climate action and so increases overall ambitions, such as to deploy renewable energy technologies.

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.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Former vice-president Al Gore said support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was “not a good policy”, weeks before tax credits are up for renewal.

U.S. blending tax breaks for ethanol make it profitable for refiners to use the fuel even when it is more expensive than gasoline. The credits are up for renewal on December 31.

LONDON (Reuters) – U.N. climate talks will struggle to agree new greenhouse gas targets next month unless they can solve a complex loophole where developed countries currently ignore emissions from logging plantation forests.

Environment ministers from almost 200 countries will gather in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10 to try to toughen the world’s response to climate change.

Following is the fifth in a series of Q+As on major climate change themes.

By Gerard Wynn

(Reuters) – China’s rapid economic growth is steering the world out of financial crisis but also pumping greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, undermining global efforts to avoid dangerous climate change.

WHAT ARE CHINA’S CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) EMISSIONS?

China’s CO2 emissions in 2009 from burning fossil fuels were 7.5 billion tonnes, or 24 percent of the global total, according to the energy company BP.

LONDON (Reuters) – The world may need new ecological farming approaches besides organic food, embracing technologies which will help feed more people with limited land and water, scientists say.

Organic farming bans the use of yield-boosting, manufactured, inorganic fertilisers as well as industrial pesticides and genetically modified GM.L crops.

LONDON (Reuters) – The world may need new ecological farming approaches besides organic food, embracing technologies which will help feed more people with limited land and water, scientists say.

Organic farming bans the use of yield-boosting, manufactured, inorganic fertilizers as well as industrial pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops.

LONDON (Reuters) – Eradicating fossil fuel subsidies would boost the global economy, environment and energy security, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday, referring to a pledge made by G20 countries.

G20 leaders committed in Pittsburgh in 2009 to phase out, over the medium-term, inefficient fossil fuel subsidies which encouraged wasteful consumption.

LONDON (Reuters) – A widely agreed international target to avoid dangerous global warming must take account of local impacts and may need to change, said the chief scientist at the MetOffice Hadley Center, Britain’s biggest climate research center.

Julia Slingo said the target of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius (2C) may need adjusting to take into account research into local and regional effects, particularly on rainfall patterns, as climate science advances.