Oct 4 (Reuters) - China, the world's top greenhouse gas polluter, is hosting week-long U.N. climate talks aimed at trying to unblock negotiations on a new pact that steps up the fight against climate change.
Following are some of the main issues before negotiators in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, the last round of talks before a major climate conference in the Mexican resort of Cancun from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10.
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PLEDGES TO CUT EMISSIONS
The U.N. climate panel says nations need to step up efforts to rein in the pace of growth of emissions from burning fossil fuels and deforestation and that rich countries should commit to cuts of 25 to 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
Current pledges offered by major emitting nations are insufficient to avoid dangerous climate change and won't meet an agreed target of keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
But the United Nations, fearing deadlocked talks, says the pledges listed under the non-binding Copenhagen Accord will have to do for now and that a way must be found to formalise these pledges into legally binding decisions.
How this will be achieved is unclear and it is also uncertain if developing nations will agree, or how any decisions will be linked with other agreements or conditions.
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FINANCING
Any deal will hinge on the money. The Copenhagen Accord committed $30 billion in fast-start financing from 2010-12 to help poorer countries adapt to the impact of climate change and to access clean-energy technology. The Accord also agreed on a goal to boost this to $100 billion a year by 2020.
Developing nations say the funding is vital because they are among the most vulnerable countries to climate change and need help in transforming their economies. The money will also instil confidence in the negotiations.
Current pledges total nearly $30 billion but some of the money isn't new.
Nations have agreed to establish a climate fund to manage and channel climate cash but the fund's design has yet to be agreed and is likely to be linked to an agreement on independent and regular monitoring of developing nations' steps to curb their emissions.
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MONITORING, REPORTING AND VERIFYING
Major developing nations have pledged to curb the growth of their emissions while still allowing their economies to grow.
Pledges include cutting the carbon intensity per unit of gross domestic product, boosting forest cover, fighting deforestation, programmes to boost renewable energy and reducing emissions significantly from projected levels through steps such as energy efficiency.
None have pledged absolute cuts.
But rich nations led by the United States want these national actions to be reported regularly so they can be internationally verified. The Copenhagen Accord agreed on this principle and Cancun could launch a registry of the steps that need finance and other support from rich countries.
THE MANDATE
Governments still can't reach agreement on the shape of the final outcome and need to settle on a mandate. Negotiators need to agree on whether the talks are heading for a single new treaty, an extension of a pact on emissions agreed in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997 into a second phase, or a two-treaty outcome: a second commitment period for Kyoto plus and agreement to negotiate a new treaty.
FIGHTING DEFORESTATION
Negotiations have made major progress on a scheme that would financially reward developing nations that save tracts of carbon-absorbing rainforests.
Called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, or REDD, projects that lock away forests under threat from clearing could earn carbon offsets that rich nations would buy, a source of potentially billions of dollars in annual revenue for poorer countries and local forest communities.
An agreement on launching an initial phase of REDD, plus adaptation and a mechanism to share clean-energy technology are among the less controversial things the United Nations hopes can be agreed on in Cancun. (Editing by Robert Birsel)
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