BONN, May 25 (Reuters) – More than 180 countries agreed on an agenda for work on a new climate treaty by 2015 at United Nations climate talks on Friday, breaking a deadlock over procedure, but mistrust remains that could threaten progress for the rest of the year.

“(The workplan) was not an easy issue to agree (on),” U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres told reporters after the negotiations held at Bonn in Germany.

“All parties needed reassurances from each other to allow them to undertake the work with a certain sense of comfort.”

U.N. climate talks in South Africa last year agreed a package of measures that would extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol after it expires at the end of this year and decide a new, legally binding accord to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 2015, coming into force by 2020.

In the Bonn talks, the first negotiation session since that deal was struck, delegates have argued for over a week on how to organise work on a new climate deal and appoint a chair to steer the process.

Procedural wrangling during the two-week session, attended by national negotiating teams below ministerial level, has shown there is mistrust among participants and heaps pressure on ministerial talks in Doha, Qatar, at the end of the year to deliver, observers said.

“When people start fighting about agendas it is a symptom of lack of trust and of some pretty substantive areas of disagreement,” said Celine Charveriat, director of advocacy and campaigns at international development charity Oxfam.

BONN, May 25 (Reuters) – More than 180 countries agreed on an agenda for work on a new climate treaty by 2015 at United Nations climate talks on Friday, breaking a week-long deadlock over procedure.

“(The work plan) was not an easy issue to agree (on),” U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres told reporters after the negotiations held at Bonn in Germany.

“All parties needed reassurances from each other to allow them to undertake the work with a certain sense of comfort.”

U.N. climate talks in South Africa last year agreed a package of measures that would extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol after it expires at the end of this year and decide a new, legally binding accord to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 2015, coming into force by 2020.

In the Bonn talks, the first negotiation session since that deal was struck, delegates have argued for over a week on how to organise work on a new climate deal and appoint a chair to steer the process.

Procedural wrangling during the two-week session showed that deep disagreements remained among participants and put a lot of pressure on talks in Doha, Qatar, at the end of the year to deliver, observers said.

“When people start fighting about agendas it is a symptom of lack of trust and of some pretty substantive areas of disagreement,” said Celine Charveriat, director of advocacy and campaigns at international development charity Oxfam.

BONN, Germany (Reuters) – Hopes are fading that climate talks in Qatar late this year will make even modest progress towards getting a new globally binding climate deal signed by 2015, as preliminary negotiations in Germany this week have left much work to be done.

The fear is that if work plans and agendas are not set by the end of this year at the latest it could have a knock-on effect, holding up the entire effort to avert potentially devastating global warming.

United Nations climate talks in South Africa last year agreed a package of measures that would extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a global pact enforcing carbon cuts, and decide a new, legally binding accord by 2015, coming into force by 2020.

In the first negotiating session since that agreement, delegates from over 180 countries were nearing the end of two-week long session in Bonn, but progress has been hampered by procedural wrangling.

Additional sessions later on look unlikely, due to a lack of funding, so a range of unresolved issues will be left until the two-week summit in Doha, Qatar, at the end of November.

Delegates and observers fear there will be too much work to do to make proper progress on the new global deal and ensure deeper emissions cuts are made both up to 2020 and beyond.

“(We know that) trade talks collapsed in Doha. Are we setting the stage for the collapse of climate negotiations?” said Mithika Mwenda, co-ordinator for campaign group the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance.

BONN, Germany (Reuters) – Hopes are fading that climate talks in Qatar late this year will make even modest progress towards getting a new globally binding climate deal signed by 2015, as preliminary negotiations in Germany this week have left much work to be done.

The fear is that if work plans and agendas are not set by the end of this year at the latest it could have a knock-on effect, holding up the entire effort to avert potentially devastating global warming.

United Nations climate talks in South Africa last year agreed a package of measures that would extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a global pact enforcing carbon cuts, and decide a new, legally binding accord by 2015, coming into force by 2020.

In the first negotiating session since that agreement, delegates from over 180 countries were nearing the end of two-week long session in Bonn, but progress has been hampered by procedural wrangling.

Additional sessions later on look unlikely, due to a lack of funding, so a range of unresolved issues will be left until the two-week summit in Doha, Qatar, at the end of November.

Delegates and observers fear there will be too much work to do to make proper progress on the new global deal and ensure deeper emissions cuts are made both up to 2020 and beyond.

“(We know that) trade talks collapsed in Doha. Are we setting the stage for the collapse of climate negotiations?” said Mithika Mwenda, co-ordinator for campaign group the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance.

BONN, Germany (Reuters) – Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 could rise to nine billion metric tons (9.92 billion tons) above what is needed to limit global warming as some countries look set to miss their emissions cut targets, a report by three climate research groups said on Wednesday.

Countries have agreed that deep emissions cuts are needed to limit an increase in global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius this century above pre-industrial levels, a threshold that scientists say is the minimum required to limit devastating climate effects like crop failure and melting glaciers.

They believe the 2 degree limit is only possible if emission levels are kept to around 44 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020.

The report by non-governmental organization Climate Analytics, consultancy Ecofys and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said many governments are not implementing policies to meet their emissions reduction pledges for 2020, and could increase rather than close the gap between real emissions and what is needed to limit warming,

Negotiators from over 180 nations are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until Friday, to work towards getting a new global climate pact signed by 2015 and to ensure ambitious emissions cuts are made after the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of this year.

Procedural wrangling and a reluctance to raise ambitions to cut emissions due to economic constraints is threatening progress, however.

“It’s clear that many governments are nowhere near putting in place the policies they have committed to, policies that are not enough to keep temperature rise to below 2 degrees,” said Bill Hare, Director of Climate Analytics.

BONN (Reuters) – A yearly review of countries’ greenhouse gas emissions cut pledges under an extension to the global climate pact the Kyoto Protocol could be a way to raise climate ambitions, the European Union’s lead climate negotiator said on Wednesday.

Negotiators from over 180 countries are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until Friday to work towards getting a new global climate pact signed by 2015 and to ensure ambitious emissions cuts are made after the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of this year.

United Nations’ climate talks in South Africa last year agreed to extend Kyoto for five or eight years from 2013 into a second commitment period and to get all countries in 2015 to sign a new deal that would force them to cut emissions no later than 2020.

Nations are under increasing pressure to put emissions cut pledges for Kyoto’s second phase on the table or deepen existing ones before the current commitment period ends on December 31.

The EU, which pledges to cut emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, has said it would move to a deeper target of 30 percent if other big emitters made similar moves.

However, the worsening euro zone crisis and flagging global economy have increased reluctance to commit to more financially onerous cuts by the end of the decade.

“It is difficult to see under current circumstances that we would move away from the current 20 percent (target),” Artur Runge-Metzger, the EU Commission’s director of EU and international climate strategy, told Reuters.

By Ben Garside and Nina Chestney

BONN, May 22 (Reuters Point Carbon) – A row over planning how to bind all emitters under a global climate pact from 2020 at U.N. climate talks in Germany is blocking negotiations to deepen nearer term emission cuts and raise cash to help poor countries cope with a warming planet, the EU said Tuesday.

Delegates have failed to start work on a new Durban Platform negotiation track after four days of talks in Bonn spent arguing over an agenda to organize work this year and appoint a chair to steer the process.

With two negotiating days remaining at the fortnight-long session, the EU and other richer nations say the procedural wrangling risks backtracking on what over 190 nations agreed last year and could leave too little time for officials to map out a deal for politicians to adopt at a year-end summit in Doha, Qatar.

“There is a risk of unraveling of what was agreed in the Durban package,” the EU’s Pete Betts told negotiators, referring to the deal struck at last year’s annual climate conference in South Africa.

“We need to stop fighting each other and start fighting climate change instead.”

LEGAL FEARS

BONN, Germany (Reuters) – Reluctance to raise ambitions to cut greenhouse gas emissions due to economic constraints is threatening progress towards limiting global warming, delegates at United Nations’ climate talks in Germany warned on Monday.

The talks in Bonn, which end on May 25, are partly to discuss ways of raising the level of ambition on cuts but the worsening eurozone crisis and battered global economy have increased reluctance to commit to more financially onerous cuts by the end of the decade, delegates told Reuters.

Last year’s U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, agreed to develop a new protocol, legal instrument or legally binding deal by 2015 which would apply to all parties under the U.N.’s climate convention and would come into force no later than 2020.

Countries had already agreed in 2010 that deep greenhouse gas emissions cuts had to be made to keep a rise in global average temperature below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels this century to avoid more extreme weather, glacier melts, ocean acidification and other harmful impacts.

But efforts so far to cut emissions are not seen as sufficient to stop a rise beyond two degrees this century.

“The ambition gap must be closed..in Doha,” said Sai Navoti, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, referring to talks scheduled for November-December in Qatar.

“Failing to close the gap immediately will lead to significant risks across various tipping points and global average temperature exceeding 3.5 degrees,” he added.

LONDON (Reuters) – The chance of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius this century is getting slimmer and slimmer, the head of the International Energy Agency warned on Wednesday.

“What I see now with existing investments for plants under construction…we are seeing the door for a 2 degree Celsius target about to be closed and closed forever,” Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist, told a Reuters’ Global Energy & Environment Summit.

“This door is getting slimmer and slimmer in terms of physical and economic possibility,” he warned.

The IEA said last November that around 80 percent of total energy-related carbon emissions permissible by 2035 to limit warming were already accounted for by existing power plants, buildings and factories, leaving little room for more.

In 2010, countries agreed that deep emissions cuts had to be made to keep an increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels this century.

Scientists say that crossing the threshold risks an unstable climate in which weather extremes are common but efforts so far to cut greenhouse gas emissions are not seen as sufficient to stop a rise beyond 2 degrees.

A report this month by the Club of Rome think tank said rising carbon dioxide emissions will cause a 2 degree rise by 2052 and a 2.8 degree rise by 2080, though some other estimates are more conservative.

LONDON (Reuters) – Countries which agreed to sign a deal in 2015 to cut greenhouse gas emissions should set milestones this year to ensure the necessary work is done on time, the United Nations’ climate chief said on Wednesday.

Last year’s U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, agreed a package of measures which would eventually force all the world’s polluters to take legally binding action to slow the pace of global warming.

Delegates agreed on the so-called “Durban Platform for Enhanced Action” – a process to develop a new protocol, legal instrument or legally binding deal by 2015 which would apply to all parties under the U.N.’s climate convention and would come into force no later than 2020.

But a clear timetable and targets for this process have not yet been set.

“Parties need to think between now and Doha how they want to organize their work between now and 2015 and how they will move towards that legal agreement,” Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change told the Reuters Global Energy & Environment Summit.

“My hope is they will establish milestones along the way so they are able to measure their progress.”

U.N. climate talks are currently taking place in Bonn, Germany until May 25. More talks are expected in South Korea in the autumn and in Doha, Qatar, at the end of this year.