Cancun talks cannot afford to fail: EU climate chief

(MEXICO CITY) - The European Union's top climate official warned Friday that international climate talks in Cancun this month were likely to be tough, but that failure could threaten the whole UN process.

"If we do not keep momentum in Cancun and build on what was achieved in Copenhagen, then there is a risk that some key parties will start to simply lose interest in the international UN process," said European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard at a pre-summit meeting in Mexico City.

The UN-backed November 29-December 10 talks in Cancun follow an acrimonious summit in the Danish capital one year ago on pushing back the threat of climate change after 2012.

"It's probably going to be tough" in Cancun, Hedegaard told AFP, acknowledging that the goal of an internationally binding deal had slipped given the unchanging positions of China and the United States.

The two giants clashed at a UN climate meeting in China in October, accusing each other of blocking progress ahead of Cancun.

"In the end, what matters is that the world's two largest emitters ... that they also say: 'Yes, we really want to do this,'" Hedegaard said.

"They have a huge responsibility."

Hedegaard called for a practical approach and smaller goals, such as deals on deforestation, setting up climate warning systems, progress on financing, and encouraging the transfer of cleaner technology to poorer countries.

Actions such as emissions targets from businesses and countries in recent years showed that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was making progress, Hedegaard said.

"If we do not have this process then people should not believe that OK, then there is just some magical bullet," she added.

Recent weather -- including an unprecedented heatwave in Russia, record temperatures in the Middle East, heavy rain in northern Europe and flooding which caused massive mudslides in China -- fits with scientific predictions regarding climate change, Hedegaard said.

"I do not say that every time you see heavy precipitation that it's due to climate change, I just say that all the things you saw globally this year are very much in line with what scientists had warned us would happen."

The long-running UN negotiations are aimed at eventually securing a binding global treaty on how to limit and cope with climate change.

This would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012.

Representatives of 51 countries and the European Union took part in the two-day meeting in the Mexican capital, ending Friday.