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BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- Poor nations want to join the global fight against greenhouse gas emissions but boosting economic growth and reducing poverty remain the top priority, their finance ministers told wealthy counterparts at landmark talks held Tuesday. The meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. climate conference on Bali was the first by finance ministers on global warming, recognizing the need for international cooperation in reducing rising temperatures while ensuring growth does not suffer. Ministers and officials from 36 countries focused on ways to raise the nearly $200 billion the United Nations estimates will be needed yearly in investments to produce cleaner energy and to mitigate the effects of climate change. "Climate change is an economic, development and investment challenge, not just an environmental one," Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said at the closing of the talks. Scientists say drastically cutting carbon dioxide emissions is essential to avoid the worst effects of climate change, but many countries -- both poor and developed -- fear that doing so will erode economic growth. Among the things countries can do is to raise taxes on fossil fuels that contribute to climate change, force industry to be more energy-efficient through regulation and introduce cap-and-trade carbon trading systems. But developing nations told the meeting that cutting poverty remained their top policy objective, Indrawati said. "This shall, and will, not be shifted to the climate change issue," she said. The talks produced no binding agreements, and ministers agreed to meet again next year. Delegates from more than 190 countries are in Bali to launch negotiations on a new strategy for tackling climate change when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012, with poor and rich nations divided on how best to move forward.
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