Latest round of U.N. climate talks focuses on business end of global warming

VIENNA, Austria: Now that scientists have documented the potentially catastrophic consequences of global warming, experts are tackling the business end.

This week’s latest round of talks on climate change, which get under way in Vienna on Monday, will focus on ensuring that the US$20 trillion (
“We need to ‘climate-proof’ economic growth,” Yvo de Boer, the U.N.’s top climate official, told reporters Sunday.

More than 1,000 delegates were gathering in the Austrian capital for talks aimed at advising nations, corporations, bankers and public institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, how to make the most of their energy investments.

A new report by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change says additional investments of about US$210 billion (