CLIMATE CHANGE: OPEC Hinders Aid for the Developing World

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 10 2004 (IPS) - The OPEC countries appear to be more concerned about the impact on their economies of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than about the potentially disastrous consequences of global warming for the nations of the developing South.

The OPEC countries appear to be more concerned about the impact on their economies of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than about the potentially disastrous consequences of global warming for the nations of the developing South.

The stance adopted by the developing-nation members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sparked conflict within the Group of 77 developing countries (G-77) plus China on the subject of funding for adaptation to climate change.

The G-77 plus China met to discuss the issue on Thursday, the fourth day of the 10th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, currently underway in Buenos Aires.

The oil-producing countries are demanding financial support to compensate for the loss of income that will supposedly result from measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are largely attributable to the burning of fossil fuels, according to scientists.

“Nobody wants to give a penny to Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia isn’t asking for it, either, but they’re using these arguments to complicate the negotiations on an agreement,” said Raúl Estrada Oyuela, head of the Argentine delegation.

The OPEC countries – Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela – produce 40 percent of the petroleum consumed globally and account for over three-quarters of the world’s crude reserves.

The organisation has traditionally allied itself with the other nations of the developing South on the issue of climate change, but conflicts have begun to emerge as the Feb. 16 entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol draws near.

The protocol, signed in 1997, establishes a commitment on the part of the industrialised nations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other “greenhouse” gases that trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere and lead to global warming.

Global warming in turn can trigger a host of catastrophic effects, like the melting of glaciers and a consequent rise in sea level, or increasingly destructive hurricanes.

The United States, which is responsible for 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and Australia, another major producer, have not ratified the protocol, and are thus not obliged to comply with it.

The two main focuses of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol are mitigation, or curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and adaptation, or lessening the harm caused by climate change, mainly through infrastructure development.

The protocol obliges industrialised member countries to reduce emissions to levels 5.2 percent lower than in 1990, with deadlines ranging from 2008 to 2012.

Up until now, the most significant advances have been made in the area of mitigation. As a result, the countries of the developing South are now pushing for more to be done with regard to adaptation, by seeking resources that will allow them to better cope with the climate change effects already being felt.

Shifting the focus to adaptation, however, has sharpened the division within the G-77 plus China that has always surrounded this particular issue, with the OPEC nations pitted on one side against the rest of the developing world on the other.

According to Estrada Oyuela, since the very outset of negotiations on climate change, two types of adaptation have been posited.

One of them, the most “obvious”, in his view, is adaptation to the physical effects of climate change.

The other, put forward by the OPEC nations, refers to the economic effects of the reduction in fossil fuel consumption that will allegedly result from the adoption of mitigation-related measures.

For Estrada Oyuela, this scenario is difficult to imagine.

“The fossil fuel market has not declined. As the report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) shows, the volume has increased and prices have risen, so it’s hard to understand what kind of impact they’re talking about,” he said.

Nevertheless, since all decisions adopted by the G-77 plus China are reached by consensus, the group was eventually forced to take into account the OPEC nations’ stance, although with modifications that toned it down significantly.

“We changed the document we started with considerably,” Estrada Oyuela noted.

The group ultimately agreed upon a document that will serve as the basis for negotiations with the industrialised and transition-economy countries, which are responsible for funding adaptation projects.

Estrada Oyuela lamented the limited participation of Latin American delegates in the G-77 plus China negotiations, since a greater regional presence might have helped to counterbalance the OPEC influence.

The most active participants from Latin America and the Caribbean were Argentina and Brazil, he said. “Jamaica has helped as well, but we would have liked to see a more active role played by many of our colleagues,” he added.

The director of the WWF Climate Change Programme, Jennifer Morgan, told the Argentine press that OPEC acted like “a fox in the henhouse” within the G-77.

Morgan expressed doubt that the OPEC nations would cooperate with the developing countries on this issue. With the exception of Nigeria, none of the organisation’s members have even ratified the Kyoto Protocol, she pointed out.

“It’s time to reconsider” OPEC’s participation in the G-77, said Morgan.