OPEC and China: Combating climate change has economic drawbacks, COP 15

Release Date: 2009-03-31

There is widespread satisfaction with the new US promises to work more on combating global warming. But OPEC fears damaging economic side-effects.

Sunday at UN climate talks in Bonn, the Obama administration promised to cut US emissions of greenhouse gases by between 16 and 17 percent, or back to 1990 levels, by 2020. It is a far more ambitious plan than under former President George W. Bush and the change in attitude was welcomed with sustained applause from the audience.

Yesterday, delegates from OPEC countries expressed concern that a shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy would threaten the oil-exporting economies.

"The shift to a low carbon economy has a clear and deliberate outcome that will adversely impact all developing country fossil fuel exporters," Ramiro Ramirez of the OPEC Secretariat said, according to Reuters.

However, OPEC nations got little sympathy from many delegations at the UN talks since the poorest African or Asian states are much more at risk and among the most vulnerable to floods or rising sea levels.

China's climate ambassador, Yu Qingtai justified that developing countries prioritize economic development at the expense of the fight against climate change.

"We have the option of leaving our people in the darkness without electricity, leaving the factories idle and people unemployed, or building up the necessary infrastructure to allow our economy to grow," he told Reuters.

Type:	NORMAL
Company:	COP 15
Country:	Denmark
Url:	http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=998