Bonn, Germany - Environmentalists demonstrated Monday in Bonn, appealing to negotiators at UN climate-change talks in the German city to agree on tough new limits to world gas emissions.

The 12 days of talks beginning Monday are the first in a series of meetings culminating in December to sign off on a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol. World governments are to consider an ambitious new draft UN treaty with various methods to fight global warming.

Artur Runge-Metzger, a senior EU climate change official in Brussels, defended European Union efforts so far in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases which cause warming.

At a news conference, the German-born official said data for the EU emissions trading scheme for 2008, the fourth year, was just out.

"What you see is a 3-per-cent reduction of emissions if you compare 2007 to 2008," he said Monday. "Part of that is a signal of the economic downturn, but a significant part relates to improving efficiency at companies."

The talks in Bonn, organized by the United Nations, bring together 3,500 participants from round the globe.

Yvo de Boer, executive director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), released a draft document on May 20, though many details remain to be agreed. The UNFCCC is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Environmentalist campaigners like those who held rallies in public spaces Monday will be keeping a close eye on the talks, criticizing those nations they perceive to be backsliding on global-warming goals. (dpa)