Financial turmoil no bar to climate deal: U.N.

WARSAW (Reuters) – Global financial turmoil should not hamper a new world climate deal because high energy prices remain an incentive to improve energy efficiency, the U.N.’s top climate official said on Friday.

Some analysts have said the current crisis sweeping financial markets may leave no money for investments in limiting greenhouse gas emissions amid U.N.-led talks aimed at clinching a new international deal to tackle global warming.

“I have personally not seen an economic analysis that shows the current credit crisis is having a bigger impact on the global economy than current oil prices,” Yvo de Boer, head of the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters.

But he said the uncertainty generated by the credit crunch and the lack of trust in financial markets were obstacles to developing green energy projects despite the spur of oil prices around $100 a barrel.

Reuters