U.N. Climate Talks Threaten Our Survival: Saudi Arabia
Date: 09-Apr-09
Country: GERMANY
Author: Gerard Wynn
U.N. Climate Talks Threaten Our Survival: Saudi Arabia Photo: Ali Jarekji
A gas
flame is seen in the desert near the Khurais oilfield, about 160 km (99
miles) from Riyadh, June 23, 2008.
Photo: Ali Jarekji
BONN - United Nations climate talks threaten Saudi Arabia's economic
survival and the kingdom wants support for any shift from fossil fuels to
other energy sources such as solar power, its lead climate negotiator said.
Contrasting interests of different countries are challenging faltering
climate talks, meant to forge by December a new global deal in Copenhagen to
curb man-made climate change.
Small island states say their survival is threatened by rising seas. But
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, says it could suffer from
any pact which curbs oil demand by penalizing carbon emissions.
"It's a matter of survival for us, also. So we are among the most vulnerable
countries, economically," Mohammad Al Sabban told Reuters on the fringes of
talks which end on Wednesday, after the latest in a series of meetings meant
to thrash out a deal to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.
"Saudi Arabia has not done that much yet to diversify."
Other divisions in the talks include rich versus poor, nations which
contribute more to climate change than others, and countries more vulnerable
to sea level rise, floods and droughts.
Saudi Arabia wants support, for example, to develop alternative energy
sources and to earn credits for burying greenhouse gases underground in
near-depleted oil wells.
Al Sabban said Saudi Arabia's solar power ambition was "much larger" than
Abu Dhabi's $15 billion Masdar project to invest in renewable energy and
build a carbon neutral city, but declined to put a dollar number on Saudi
plans.
"We have a lot of sun, a lot of land. We can export solar power to our
neighbors on a very large scale and that is our strategic objective to
diversify our economy, it will be huge."
"We need the industrialized countries to assist us through direct
investment, transfer of technologies," to ease the burden of a new climate
deal, he added.
CASH
Developing nations want more cash from rich countries to help fund their
fight against climate change but may have to wait until the final days and
weeks of haggling in December.
Saudi Arabia wants to access an existing adaptation fund which the U.N.'s
climate chief Yvo de Boer describes as a "pittance." The country may have to
compete with others which want funds to prepare for sea level rise and
extreme weather.
"Adaptation is not only to the impact of climate change but also the impact
of climate policies," said Al Sabban.
Other Saudi demands from the U.N. talks include a re-vamping of fossil fuel
taxes in industrialized countries to focus on carbon rather than energy,
which may benefit oil because it emits less of the greenhouse gas compared
to coal.
It also wants an elimination of subsidies for rival biofuels which it says
harm the environment and hike food prices.
The new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama has called for an
increase in the amount of corn-based ethanol to be used in gasoline in the
United States.
Al Sabban said Saudi Arabia was "worried" about a "dangerous" threat to its
economy but would cooperate.
Environmental groups say the country has obstructed the climate talks for
years, filibustering with frequent interventions in debates involving up to
190 countries.
"We get used to these allegations," Al Sabban said. "We are faithfully
engaging in these negotiations. Everybody here is coming to protect their
interests, we are doing the same, the EU is doing the same, the United
States."
(Editing by Dominic Evans)
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