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Saudi Arabia May Try To Tap Green Climate Fund, Won't Pay In

Saudi Arabia May Try To Tap Green Climate Fund, Wont Pay In
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Πεμ, 1 Δεκεμβρίου 2011 - 17:55
Saudi Arabia will not pay into a $100 billion climate fund under discussion at the U.N.-sponsored climate change talks, but it could seek access to the funding in the future to help its economy adapt to policies that might dent oil demand, the country's chief negotiator for climate change said Thursday.
Saudi Arabia will not pay into a $100 billion climate fund under discussion at the U.N.-sponsored climate change talks, but it could seek access to the funding in the future to help its economy adapt to policies that might dent oil demand, the country's chief negotiator for climate change said Thursday.

Mohammad Al-Sabban, senior economic advisor to the Saudi minister for petroleum resources, said the fund should be financed by developed countries because the industrialized world bears the historic burden of causing the bulk of CO2 emissions today.

"We think the fund will be approved, but whether it will be an empty shell is still to be seen," Al-Sabban told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the UN-led COP-17 negotiations. "We will not be putting money into the fund."

The country also said it doesn't support new climate mitigation policies to extend binding carbon limits to developing countries and countries outside the current framework, Saudi Arabia 's top climate negotiator said Thursday, reiterating a longstanding position. His comments come amid two-week long international negotiations on climate policy.

The fund was first established in the 2009 Copenhagen Accord that called on developed countries to commit $30 million between 2010 and 2012 and $100 billion annually by 2020 to assist developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change. But the fund's prospects look uncertain in light of the lack of funding. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned last month that the fund should not become "an empty shell" in light of the fiscal difficulties of many rich countries.

A number of countries on Wednesday led by the U.S. said they would like to discuss further how the fund will be run before signing off on the fund.

Al-Sabban added that Saudi Arabia could eventually tap into the money if the fund gets off the ground to help its economy offset lost petroleum revenues resulting from climate policies.

Saudi Arabia has been an active presence in recent years on climate negotiations, forcefully arguing in 2009 that OPEC countries could lose trillions in dollars in revenue under aggressive climate mitigation policies.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia has also sought to build up its portfolio of low-carbon energy, in large part to support its growing domestic economy and enable it to continue to export petroleum. Al-Sabban said Saudi Arabia hopes to have renewable energy account for 15% of domestic energy consumption in the next five years by expanding its solar business. Saudi Arabia is also aggressively investing in nuclear energy.

Al-Sabban made his comments after presenting at a South African government sponsored event on carbon capture storage. Al-Sabban said Saudi Arabia is investing in a pilot program under the state-oil company Saudi Aramco to see how carbon capture storage, or CCS, could be commercially applied. Standard Bank estimates the technology won't be commercially viable until 2025 at the earliest.

South Africa , as host of the climate talks, produces 90% of its energy from coal power plants and has a target to reduce emissions by 34% by 2020.
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