WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If the United States focused on curbing climate change as soon as a new president took office -- or sooner -- it could help pull the world from the financial brink, environmental policy experts told Reuters.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A global financial crisis could distract the world's lawmakers and investors from supporting initiatives and technologies to reduce greenhouse gases, delaying what many see as critical efforts to combat climate change.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If the United States focused on curbing climate change as soon as a new president took office -- or sooner -- it could help pull the world from the financial brink, environmental policy experts told Reuters.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has backed companies like Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc, recently made its first clean technology investment in India, a top executive told Reuters.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Payments from polluters in rich countries to tropical communities in exchange for slowing deforestation may soon play a bigger role in combating climate change if problems like measuring preservation efforts can be overcome.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has backed companies like Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc , recently made its first clean technology investment in India, a top executive told Reuters.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Payments from polluters in rich countries to tropical communities in exchange for slowing deforestation may soon play a bigger role in combating climate change if problems like measuring preservation efforts can be overcome.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Solar cell maker First Solar Inc has felt no immediate effect on its business from the financial markets crisis and could take on a role in financing new projects or buying into new technologies, Chairman and CEO Michael Ahearn said on Wednesday.

BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Worsening damage to nature is jolting the world into doing more to protect animals and plants and new economic arguments will bolster the case for action, the head of a global conservation network said.