Berlin  - The financial turmoil that has brought down a series of US and European banks is making a world climate-change accord difficult to achieve, Germany warned Tuesday at the start of a conference in Berlin.

"You can't rule out that interest in saving the climate will change," said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, making a point that US state governors at the meeting confirmed.

"Bailing out a major bank could be seen (in the United States) as more urgent than dealing with a process happening gradually," said Steinmeier.

The meeting, designed to forge links between US and German leaders keen to act on climate change, is taking place in the Foreign Ministry conference centre.

US governors said they were committed to fighting global warming, but noted that the costly bail-out of the financial system would hold backing spending on that objective.

US economist Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, said the world could usher in a "third industrial revolution" if it could cut dependence on oil and gas.

Germany appealed to the governors to cross-link US and European Union systems of trading in carbon-dioxide emission rights.

Trading in emissions rights rewards industries that reduce the amount of smoke they put in the atmosphere.

Steinmeier predicted the financial crisis could have one of two effects on carbon trading.

It was possible investors would enter emissions trading when other financial products vanished as a result of tougher regulation. But it was also possible investors would be too scared to invest even in green certificates.

He said talks in the next few months with financial experts would establish whether international investors had the commitment to enter the emissions trading market. (dpa)