* Left-wing leaders still angry over Copenhagen meeting
* Taking ambitious goals to U.N. talks in Cancun
By Andrew Cawthorne
CARACAS, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A bloc of left-wing Latin American nations will push lofty goals at world climate talks this month but without the fireworks they set off during the failed negotiations in Copenhagen last year.
Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua all refused to sign the final Copenhagen Accord in December 2009, saying it was not ambitious enough and was cooked up secretively by big powers.
Viewed as spoilers by some governments and U.N. officials, the so-called ALBA bloc's stance was cheered by plenty of environmental activists.
"They call us the 'voice of conscience'," said Venezuela's climate change envoy, Claudia Salerno, who drew blood banging her table to demand the microphone in the Danish capital.
"The developed nations cannot ignore, blackmail and buy us, like they try to do with others," she told Reuters.
With the next round of climate negotiations in the Mexican resort of Cancun from Nov. 29 until Dec. 10, the left-wing Latin American bloc is once again set to play a high-profile role in the quest for a binding pact to slow global warming.
But there is no sign they will play a spoiler role, and unlike many experts, they are even talking up the possibility of significant advances in Cancun.
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They took a different, more pragmatic approach at last month's U.N. meeting of almost 200 nations on biological diversity in Japan. Despite misgivings about the final deal on stemming species loss, they did not block it.
Arguing capitalism is to blame for environmental perils, ALBA leaders want the rich world to commit to a near-50 percent greenhouse emissions cut from 1990 levels by 2017 -- far deeper than cuts planned by any developed nation -- and to give as much money to fight climate change as for defense budgets.
They also say the world must limit average global temperatures to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. That is backed by many developing nations whereas the likes of China and the United States talk of 2 degrees.
Bolivia has urged an even tougher limit of 1 degree.
"MANKIND AT RISK"
The ALBA leaders also see the development of carbon markets, under which polluters can offset emissions by purchasing credits, as a cop-out for rich nations.
They say massive changes, instead of political toing-and-froing, are essential to save the environment.
"If world leaders, especially from rich nations, listen to their peoples, Cancun will be a party," Bolivia's President Evo Morales, who plans to attend the talks, said recently.
"If not, then we are facing the biggest risk that human life will disappear from planet earth."
With the first phase of the emissions-cutting Kyoto treaty [ID:nLDE66K1HN] set to expire in 2012, the talks in Copenhagen last year ended with only a minimal, face-saving pact that ALBA nations and Sudan refused anyway to endorse.
That meant the Copenhagen Accord was merely "noted" by the conference and did not win legal force as a binding treaty.
After that failure, expectations are low for Cancun, with most analysts expecting little more than generalized agreements on financing for climate initiatives and compensation to developing nations, plus commitments to review global targets.
That may pave the way for a final pact, perhaps next year.
"It won't be a real deal, more setting up architecture," said Greenpeace climate policy director Wendel Trio.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa -- both firebrands -- might join Morales in Cancun. Their presence would certainly spice up the talks as all three enjoy railing against U.S. "imperialism" and the vagaries of capitalism.
Mexico has worked hard to find consensus positions before the talks begin, but there are still wide gaps between the positions of key players. Even Latin America has been unable to find a unified position.
Brazil works with other major developing powers like India, China and South Africa on environmental matters, while the ALBA group -- whose letters stand for the "Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America" in honor of independence hero Simon Bolivar -- has adopted positions widely seen as too radical by other governments in the region.
U.S ROLE
Bolivia's U.N. envoy Pablo Solon blames U.S. foot-dragging on emissions targets, made worse by President Barack Obama's recent reverse in mid-term elections, for slow progress in the climate change negotiations.
"The pledges from the United States are very low and that has a domino effect," he told Reuters, saying rich nations were too scared of losing economic competitiveness.
"The process is still kidnapped by economic factors."
Venezuela, which with Cuba drove the formation of ALBA in 2004, is not expecting a repeat of the drama in Copenhagen.
"Mexico has not behaved like Denmark," said Salerno, still bitter at the Danish hosts' role last year in letting a reduced group led by China and the United States draw up a pact.
"Everything seems to indicate the conditions are there for an extraordinary advance in Cancun," Salerno added, saying recent floods in Pakistan, the BP disaster and other events showed the need for urgent action.
By claiming the moral high ground over the environment, ALBA members expose themselves to questions about their own economies, particularly regional oil heavyweight Venezuela.
Chavez officials say, however, that due to Venezuela's vast forests and green areas, overall it remains a low-carbon economy -- contributing just 0.48 percent of global emissions -- despite its massive oil industry and exports.
Cuba has a strong track record in discouraging excessive energy consumption, though that is partly for ideological reasons and partly because it has to import most of its oil and struggles to provide enough power.
Ecuador, for its part, has been trumpeting an innovative plan to save the Yasuni National Park in the Amazon region by not drilling for oil -- but it is demanding in exchange a cool ${esc.dollar}3.6 billion from foreign governments. [ID:nnN1474843] (Additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Oslo, Hugh Bronstein in Quito, Jeff Franks in Havana, Carlos Quiroga in La Paz; Editing by Alister Doyle and Kieran Murray)
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