UN to launch new round of talks on how to curb global warming and who should pay for it

DOHA, Qatar – As nearly 200 countries meet in oil-and-gas rich Qatar for annual talks starting Monday on slowing global warming, one of the main challenges will be raising climate aid for poor countries at a time when budgets are strained by financial turmoil.

Tim Gore of British charity Oxfam said Sunday that developing countries, including island nations for whom the rise in sea levels poses an existential threat, stand before a "climate fiscal cliff."

Existing commitments for climate aid expire this year, as does the only binding treaty to limit carbon emissions — the Kyoto Protocol. Negotiators in the Qatari capital of Doha will discuss renewing both, and will start work on a new global climate pact that is set to be adopted in 2015.