UN talks hope to improve climate data and aid poor

By Alister Doyle and Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - Delegates from 150 nations met in Geneva on Monday to try to plug gaps in climate information to help the world cope with global warming and threats like floods, wildfires and rising sea levels.

The August 31-September 4 World Climate Conference aims to improve everything from weather monitoring to distributing forecasts, especially to help poor nations adapt in areas such as health, agriculture, fisheries, transport, tourism and energy.

"There's a major gap: how can we better link decision-making with information?" Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization which is a leading organiser of the talks, told a news conference.

"What we need is a formal system that all people can trust to access vital information that can save their lives and protect property and economies," he said of the planned "Global Framework for Climate Services" to be agreed in Geneva.

People living on the coast, for instance, are sometimes not alerted in time to a looming storm. Cyclone Nargis killed about 84,000 people in May in Myanmar.

In the longer term, shifts in monsoon rains could affect where a company decides to site a hydro-power dam. Better understanding of ice sheets in Antarctica or Greenland could help predict sea level rise and risks of coastal floods.

"It's not only governments, it's the private sector, it's individuals, it's farmers -- everyone who has to make a decision that is affected by the climate," Jarraud said of the spinoffs of the planned framework.

The conference, of about 2,500 delegates with leaders from about 20 nations and ministers from 80 attending the final two days, is due to agree to set up the framework and a task force to work out details.