Ministers huddle in bid to jump-start climate talks

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PARIS, Apr 30 (AFP): More than three dozen environment ministers are to meet near Bonn, Germany this weekend in a bid to revive global climate talks left mangled and moribund after the UN summit in Copenhagen.
It will be the highest-level political meeting on climate since the much-criticised December conference fell spectacularly short of delivering the binding treaty that nearly all nations say is needed to spare the planet from the worst ravages of global warming.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, host to the next UN conference in Cancun at year's end, will kick things off late Sunday, setting the tone for the two-and-a-half-day closed-door brainstorming session.
"It is the return of the ministers, who are there to give political guidance to (technical) negotiators," said Brice Lalonde, France's climate ambassador. "What counts at this point is political initiative."
One avowed aim of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue -- named for the castle where it is to be held -- is confidence building.
Climate talks so far have been "hampered by lack of trust and leadership," German Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen said bluntly in the letter of invitation.