"U.N. Climate Talks Make Shaky Start to Year as Procedures Questioned"

"U.N. climate negotiations resumed on a shaky footing on Monday as some delegates questioned how the meeting was being run amid calls for more urgency at the talks, which after two years have made scant progress towards a global climate change deal.

Diplomats from almost 200 nations gathered in Bonn, Germany, vowed to speed up work towards agreeing a 2015 pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions that U.N.-backed scientists say is causing extreme weather events and rising sea levels.

The preliminary talks are the first of a series this year aimed at working out the main elements of an agreement to bind all nations to curb greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 and raise funds to tackle climate change across the developing world.

But in a sign of trouble in negotiations that have made tortuous progress over two decades, Monday's talks were peppered with procedural concerns."

Ben Garside reports for Reuters March 12, 2014.