Higher cost for climate action: OECD

The cost of meeting the world's target for global warming could rise by half if current pledges under the UN flag to cut carbon emissions are not improved, the OECD said on Thursday.

Delay in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in the coming years will hand future generations the bill for limiting warming to a safer two degrees Celsius, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said.

"We must act now to reverse emission trends," it said in a 90-page report issued ahead of the next round of UN climate talks, opening in Durban, South Africa on Monday.

"The further we delay action, the costlier it will be to stay within 2.0 C (3.6)," it said, referring to an objective laid down in the 2009 Copenhagen Summit and endorsed at UN talks in Cancun, Mexico last year.

That goal "is still achievable, but the costs are rising every day, month and year that passes to compensate for the increased emissions," the report said.

"Delayed or only moderate action up to 2020 -- such as implementing the Copenhagen/Cancun pledges only, or waiting for better technologies to come onstream -- would increase the pace and scale of efforts needed after 2020.

"It would lead to 50-percent higher costs in 2050 compared to timely action and potentially entail higher environmental risk."

The report was published in the runup to the high-level talks in Durban, running from November 28 to December 9, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The OECD suggests policy actions such as boosting carbon-reduction pledges; creating a regulatory environment that will boost the market price of carbon; adapting to climate change impacts already in the pipeline; and accelerating the development of low-carbon energy sources and technology.

"In the context of tight government budgets, finding least-cost solutions and engaging the private sector will be critical to finance the transition," the report concludes.

EU URGES EMERGING NATIONS TO COMMIT TO CLIMATE DEAL

The European Union's top climate diplomat, Connie Hedegaard, has urged emerging economies to commit to a second Kyoto period at global climate talks kicking off next week in Durban, South Africa.

The EU climate commissioner said a key issue at the talks would be the follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol's "first commitment period", the 2008-2012 period set for developed countries -- except the US which shunned Kyoto -- to meet emission targets.

"We are not only delivering on these targets, we are over-achieving," Hedegaard said of the 27-nation bloc at a news conference.

With EU nations responsible for only 11 percent of global emissions, "our share is going down, others are going up."

"So the key question is then what about the remaining 80 percent. When will they follow? How will they follow?"

"It is key that others now start to tell us if not now, when they are ready to commit," she added.

Hedegaard reiterated she would propose a new "roadmap" leading to a global deal by 2015 and implementation by 2020 at the November 28 to December 9 talks, held under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Saying the intitial Kyoto accords were out of tune with the global economy, Hedegaard said:

"What is different is that in the world of the 21st century, you cannot have developing countries that are obliged to do something but whose emissions are falling while emerging countries are not obliged but are doing it voluntarily."

Kyoto currently only covers some three dozen rich nations. China, the world's top carbon emitter overall -- but not per capita -- was excluded as a developing nation, and the United States, the number two polluter, opted out.

Canada, Japan and Russia have refused to continue Kyoto and say that any future accord must encompass all major economies including China, which in turn wants binding action from wealthy nations.

Hedegaard underlined however that since the Copenhagen round of the talks, some 90 nations had set domestic targets to reduce carbon emissions, including China and the United States.