The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned on Thursday that a loss of nerve could threaten the success of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

Current backroom negotiations "are a reflection of the industrialized countries trying to lower expectations as they continue to dodge the hard decisions on slashing their emissions and funding the transition to a low carbon economy," Kim Carstensen, Leader of the WWF's Global Climate Initiative, said in Gland, Switzerland.

There has been plenty of time to make these difficult decisions, Carstensen said, adding: "the only missing ingredient is political will."

The WWF, a leading non-governmental environmental group, is calling for continuation of the Kyoto Protocol in industrialized countries as well as a new protocol in Copenhagen, legally binding for all major emitters.

A final preparatory meeting for Copehagen will take place in Barcelona from November 2 to November 6.

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2009)