INTERVIEW-Big problems remain to win climate deal-diplomat

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK43720




* Huge challenges ahead, says China's top U.N. official

* Rare collective political will to act



By David Stanway

DALIAN, China, Sept 11 (Reuters) - "Enormous problems" remain to agree a global climate deal in Copenhagen in December, China's senior diplomat to the United Nations said on Friday.

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries have less than three months to iron out the details of a complex new pact to combat global warming.

They are still confronted with "enormous problems", said Sha Zukang, U.N. under-secretary general in charge of economic and social affairs.

The Shanghai-born Sha added that he had never seen such collective global political will to address an issue, speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Dalian.

"The difficulty is how to translate this enormous political will and unprecedented public awareness about the urgency of addressing climate change into practical policies," he told Reuters.

U.N.-led climate talks, meant to culminate in Copenhagen, continue in Bangkok at the end of this month and in Barcelona in November before ending in Denmark in December.

Both China and the European Union have complained that the pace of the talks has been too slow with no side yet prepared to concede ground on issues considered to be of vital economic importance.

"Each and every head of state has domestic complications," said Sha. "That explains the slow progress."

"Developed countries do have responsibilities towards developing countries in terms of finance and technology transfer, but I don't believe that developing countries should depend on this," he said.

"They have obligations themselves to do their own job, but with the assistance of the developed world they can do better."

Sha said a September 22 U.N. General Assembly meeting organised by the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in New York would build momentum.

"I am very much encouraged that more than 100 heads of state have agreed to go to New York. It has never happened before."

Sha -- a former trade negotiator -- said he could understand concerns that the talks could break down into the sort of protracted wrangling that normally affects World Trade Organisation meetings.

"Judging by the dimension of the issue, it is even more difficult than trade. It is a complicated issue and trade is only one element." (Reporting by David Stanway, Editing by Gerard Wynn and Andy Bruce)