Experts meet on UN report but time running out

BANGKOK, Apr 30 (Reuters) After two gloomy UN reports on global warming, scientists and governments today began looking at how to fight climate change, with green groups saying the world has the means to cut emissions at little cost.

Experts are meeting in Bangkok to review the latest UN report, with a raft of solutions to be issued on Friday after review by more than 100 nations.

The draft report warns that time for inexpensive fixes is running out because of a surge in greenhouse gas emissions.

The survey is the third this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

''Science certainly provides a lot of compelling reasons for action,'' IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri told reporters.

When asked how the IPCC could convert the report into government action, he said: ''The IPCC doesn't have any muscle, it has grey matter. The muscle will have to come from somewhere else.'' Major polluters such as United States, China and top oil producer Saudi Arabia are expected to seek to water down the report, wary of language that proscribes targets to cut emissions or threatens their oil and gas industries.

The UN climate panel issued its first report in February saying it was at least 90 percent certain that mankind was to blame for warming. The second report on April 6 warned of more hunger, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas.

Green groups say the time for bickering by governments is over.

''The key thing is whatever they decide here that it cannot be ignored anymore that climate change is happening in a big way. It's happening much faster. We have more solutions out there than before and it's not as costly as some people want us to believe it is,'' said Stephan Singer, head of the WWF's Climate Change Policy Unit.

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