News bites: Climate talks face hurdles (again), Keystone pipeline battle rages, and more

AFP reports from Panama on the latest round of international climate talks.

The news service reports that the European Union "urged all nations Sunday to make clear how they will tackle climate change, saying the world needs a roadmap this year on future action even if a treaty appears out of reach."

Here’s some incentive: AP reports on a new study that finds rising temperatures could wreak havoc on major cocoa-producing countries.

“A report released by Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture says the expected annual temperature rise of more than two degrees Celsius will leave many cocoa-producing areas in West Africa unsuitable for chocolate production by 2050,” their piece notes.

Reuters also previews U.N.-led climate talks in Panama ahead of the big 2011 global summit in South Africa.

The Los Angeles Times looks at the heartland controversy over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

“The proposed Keystone XL pipeline — the subject of public hearings convened by the State Department last week along the route from Montana to Texas — was alternately described as a plot by a foreign corporation to exploit America, a potentially perilous polluter of the nation's greatest freshwater resource, the answer to America's energy insecurity, a generator of the last great family-wage jobs and, oh yes, a dangerous new instigator of global warming,” the paper reports.

The New York Times reports on the difficulties facing an Obama administration-backed geothermal energy project in Nevada.

The Guardian reports that an “obsession” with gadgets is driving up energy costs and emissions from U.K. homes despite efforts to be more energy-conscious.