Clinton urges APEC to embrace green growth

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* APEC key to greening of global economy -Clinton

* Sealing broader climate deal "unlikely to be easy"

By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia

SINGAPORE, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The United States, China and other APEC members should turn the fight against climate change into an opportunity to boost clean-energy trade and development, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.

She also said clinching a broader U.N. climate pact next month during a major climate meeting in Copenhagen would be tough.

Speaking to ministers from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore, Clinton said curbing emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases was a major challenge for the grouping.

"The only real solution is a collective, global solution. APEC economies today account for nearly 60 percent of CO2 emissions -- and so our efforts here can have a transformative impact," she said.

China and the United States are the world's two top carbon dioxide emitters from burning fossil fuels, comprising about 40 percent of mankind's total carbon emissions.