Venezuela in talks to hold 2014 UN climate meeting

DOHA, Dec 7 (Reuters) - OPEC member Venezuela, the holder of the world’s largest oil reserves, is in talks to host annual U.N. climate talks in 2014 that would extend a run of meetings in major fossil fuel producers, a senior official said on Friday.

Next year’s talks are to be held in Poland, according to a draft U.N. decision published on Friday, a country reliant on highly polluting coal which has blocked efforts to raise European Union emissions cutting targets.

The talks scheduled for late 2014 are due to be held in South America, and Venezuela has started talks with U.N. organizers about hosting the two-week event.

“We already had a meeting with them yesterday,” Venezuela’s chief climate negotiator, Claudia Salerno, said at the U.N. climate talks held this year in the world’s biggest per capita carbon emitting country, Qatar.

“It has been formalised to the secretariat that two countries are interested ... Peru and Venezuela,” Salerno said, adding that U.N. officials would be assessing the practicalities of holding the huge event in Venezuela over coming months.

U.N. climate talks are hosted each year in a different region, with OPEC member Qatar, the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, becoming the first Middle Eastern country to hold the event.   

Venezuela has proven oil reserves of 296.5 billion barrels of oil, according to BP statistics, much of it heavy and high in sulphur.

Two-week talks in Qatar, due to end on Friday, are deadlocked over how to increase aid to developing nations to help them cope with ever more floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren and Ben Garside)