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Global warming could be slowed down if governments cleaned up what's known as black carbon from industry and cooking fires, 50 of the world's leading atmospheric scientists said on Tuesday.

China is emerging as the key deal-maker or deal-breaker as the UN climate talks head into ministerial discussions, the BBC's Richard Black reports.

Australia is often cited as being particularly vulnerable to climate change, with projections of longer droughts punctuated by increasingly horrendous floods. In Western Australia, rainfall has already declined by 20%, and the tragic "Black Saturday" bush fires that claimed 173 lives in 2009 were amplified by an unprecedented heatwave. It is less well known that Australia is also a coal "superpower," being the world's largest exporter of this dirtiest of all fossil fuels.