INCHEON, South Korea, Oct 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Oil giant Saudi Arabia is
seeking to block adoption of a key UN climate change report unless a passage
highlighting the inadequacy of national carbon-cutting pledges is removed or
altered, multiple sources told AFP.
Already in overtime, a meeting of the 195-nation Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) in Incheon, South Korea is vetting a major report that
traces pathways for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7
degrees Fahrenheit).
Most of these scenarios involve a sharp reduction in the use of fossil
fuels — Saudi Arabia’s key export.
“We are very concerned that a single country is threatening to hold up
adoption of the IPCC Special Report if scientific findings are not changed or
deleted according to its demands,” said an informed observer who asked not to
be named.
The source, along with two other persons with direct knowledge of the
situation, identified the country as Saudi Arabia.
“This has become a battle between Saudi Arabia, a rich oil producer, and
small island states threatened with extinction,” said another participant at
the meeting who also requested anonymity.
“The report hangs in the balance,” the meeting’s chair said Saturday — a
day after talks were due to end — before convening an emergency huddle of
the IPCC’s half-dozen vice chairs, according to someone in the room.
A email to Saudi officials seeking comment was not answered, and delegates
at the closed-door meeting were not accessible.
– ‘Running interference’ –
The underlying 500-page report being reviewed in Incheon — based on 6,000
peer reviewed studies — is a collaborative effort of the world’s top climate
scientists.
Under the IPCC’s consensus rules, all countries must sign off on the
language of a 20-page Summary for Policymakers, designed to provide leaders
with objective, science-based information.
At issue is a passage in the summary stating that voluntary national
commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, annexed to the 2015 Paris
climate treaty, will fail to limit warming to 1.5C.
The pledges would at best yield a 3C world by century’s end, far above the
2C cap mandated by the Paris Agreement.
These so-called “nationally determined contributions” run from 2020 to 2030
for most countries, including Saudi Arabia, and to 2025 for a few others.
The passage goes on to note that capping global warming under 1.5C “can
only be achieved if global CO2 emissions start to decline well before 2030.”
As a consequence, scientists and climate activists have called on countries
to ratchet up their carbon-cutting pledges as soon as possible.
In case of an impasse, the chairs of an IPCC meeting can override an
objection from one or a few countries, recording the objection in a footnote.
“It’s quite rare that a government will be willing to have their name on
the bottom of the page with an asterisk,” Jonathan Lynn, head of
communications for the IPCC, said last week.
“We do everything we can to avoid it.”
Saudi Arabia has a long track record of raising questions and objections
within UN climate forums.
During the week-long talks in Incheon, “the Saudis have been running
interference across the board, on main and minor issues,” a participant in
the meeting said.