Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The financial turmoil that led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Fortis's bailout by three governments is making talks on a new climate change accord ``more difficult,'' Germany's foreign minister said.

As the U.S. discusses a $700 billion rescue package for banks rocked by the credit crisis and European governments step in with financial lifelines for firms such as Fortis, societies will change their ``priorities,'' Frank-Walter Steinmeier said today in Berlin.

``No one is saying that climate change isn't a serious problem but when a bank goes under, there's an immediate need for a reaction,'' he said. ``That same sense of urgency is not there when you're dealing with a process that happens over a longer period'' like reaching an agreement on slowing carbon-dioxide emissions.

Faltering growth and rising unemployment in the U.S. as well as the credit crisis that brought down Lehman and forced the hasty rescue of Merrill Lynch & Co., two of the world's largest investment banks, are coinciding with efforts to reach a global agreement on how to limit CO2 output. Almost 200 countries have just over a year before a pact must be signed in Copenhagen to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Europe will maintain its ``leadership role'' in climate change, Steinmeier said at the briefing. The 27-member European Union plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2020, partly through the increased use of renewable energy.

Greenhouse-Gas Plans

The EU's plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and promote renewable fuels may cost as little as 0.5 percent of the bloc's economic output, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in January. Inaction could cost 10 times that amount, he said.

EU emission allowances for December lost 3 percent to 22.50 euros a metric ton on the European Climate Exchange at 2:19 p.m. London time after touching 21.57 euros, their lowest intraday price since Aug. 6. They've fallen 22 percent this quarter, lowering factory and power-station incentives to curb heat-trapping gases.

The world is facing a handful of crises at once, including the financial and credit market collapses, surging energy prices and supply shortages as well as climate change, Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, said from Berlin.

``The bailout package won't pay for 18 years of living on debt,'' he said today. ``We're facing a very sober diagnosis.''

The MSCI World Index of 23 developed markets is down 14 percent this month, the worst slump since 1987, as Lehman filed for bankruptcy, American International Group Inc. was taken over by the U.S. Treasury and Washington Mutual Inc. was seized by regulators in the biggest U.S. bank failure in history.

Belgian authorities said today that Dexia SA, the world's biggest lender to local governments, will get a 6.4 billion-euro ($9.2 billion) state-backed rescue.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy van Loon in Berlin at jvanloon@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 30, 2008 09:54 EDT