With the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow winding down this weekend, officials from some 200 countries are grappling with finalizing "next steps" in limiting the use of fossil fuels and other measures aimed at curbing climate change. A consensus may be hard to arrive at, given the dichotomies between industrialized and undeveloped countries, wealthy and poor, and an array of political systems from democracies to dictatorships.
One nation, oil-rich Saudi Arabia, has no stake in eliminating fossil fuels, despite instituting some carbon-reducing measures at home. Their only game economically is oil, and they'll supply it as long as demand is there, and they want demand to continue. Unsurprisingly, then, their team at the conference, led by Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, has been working behind the scenes to soften any step that would reduce the world's demand for oil:
"Saudi Arabia’s team in Glasgow has introduced proposals ranging from a call to quit negotiations — they often stretch into early morning hours — at 6 p.m. every day to what climate negotiation veterans allege are complex efforts to play country factions against one another with the aim of blocking agreement on tough steps to wrench the world away from coal, gas and oil.
That is the “Saudis’ proposal, by the way. They’re like, ‘Let’s just not work at nights and just accept that this is not going to be ambitious’” when it comes to fast cuts in fossil fuel pollution that is wrecking the climate, said Jennifer Tollmann, an analyst at E3G, a European climate think tank." (our emphasis)
Inviting the Saudis, who have every incentive to block meaningful climate change measures, is like inviting an arsonist to a fire fighters' conference. Whether they're using misinformation or threats against other countries to maintain the world's addiction to oil, it's undermining global health and security in exchange for enormous wealth.
(photo: Prince Abdulaziz / Sky News)
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