Saudis seek compensation for reduced oil consumption
BY JAD MOUAWAD AND ANDREW C. REVKIN
New York Times
Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: If wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers.
The oil-rich kingdom has pushed this position for years in earlier climate-treaty negotiations. While it has not succeeded, its efforts have sometimes delayed or disrupted discussions. The kingdom is once again gearing up to take a hard line on the issue at international negotiations scheduled for Copenhagen in December.
The chief Saudi negotiator, Mohammad al-Sabban, described the position as a “make or break” provision for the Saudis, as nations stake out their stance ahead of the global climate summit scheduled for the end of the year.
“Assisting us as oil-exporting countries in achieving economic diversification is very crucial for us through foreign direct investments, technology transfer, insurance, and funding,” Sabban said in an e-mail message.
This Saudi position has emerged periodically as a source of dispute since the earliest global climate talks, in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It is surfacing again as Saudi Arabia attempts to build a coalition of producers to extract concessions in Copenhagen.
Sabban outlined his stance at climate talks in Bangkok earlier this month.
Environmental advocates blasted the idea, saying the Saudi stance hampered progress to assist poor nations that are already suffering from the impact of climate change, and that genuinely need financial assistance.
But oil price swings are likely to be a bigger factor in Saudi Arabia’s future that any restrictions on greenhouse gases, said David G. Victor, an energy expert at the University of California, San Diego.
Victor dismissed the Saudi stance as a stunt, saying that the real threat for petroleum exporters came from improvements in fuel economy and rising mandates for alternative fuels in the transportation sector, both of which would reduce the need for petroleum products.
Not every oil-exporting country is falling in line with the Saudi position. Some’have been trying a different approach that has earned the backing of environmental groups. For example, Ecuador said last year that it was willing to freeze oil exploration in the Amazon forest if it gets some financial rewards for doing so.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
A cartel of greedy medievalist gangsters want us to provide them with money for services that we do not require. If this is granted then America will embolden its domestic Islamic extremists, and will suffer the same problems that Europe is currently grappling with. We should let Saudi fall to the jihadists.
This, I think, is where Iran is being smart. I’m still personally not sure whether Iran is trying to pursue nuclear weapons - they may well be - but their desire for domestic nuclear power generation is completely understandable. They are aware that their own oil isn’t going to last forever, and moving domestic energy use to nuclear is a pretty smart way to make sure their oil lasts as long as possible, and their country can be sustained once it’s gone.
The $400 billion dollars and counting that have entered the coffers of the al-Saud over the last 50 years should have been used to diversify the national economy, instead it purchased Boeing 777’s with solid gold bathroom fixtures. Indeed what are the Saudis to do? Develop a tertiary industry? “Yes, come to Saudi Arbia, where you can enjoy being spat at and called kaffir at every turn”. Their Wahabism and their greed have caused this Saudi problem, and it is theirs to resolve. Personally, I wait with bated breath for the implosion of the Kingdom. May it happen quickly.