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Churais oil field in Saudi Arabia
Photo: ALI JAREKJI / REUTERS
There are only a few days left until the start of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
Shortly before the beginning of November 1st, the BBC reported a data leak that showed how several states called on the UN to downplay the need for a quick move away from fossil fuels.
Accordingly, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia are among these countries.
Wealthy industrialized countries are also said to have questioned whether financial contributions to poorer countries, which are supposed to enable the switch to climate-friendly technologies, are really necessary in the amounts mentioned so far, according to the report.
The »BBC« refers to more than 32,000 leaked documents and comments that come from government circles or from companies and other interest groups.
This is said to have attempted to influence scientists who were working on status reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body.
With a view to the world climate summit in Glasgow, the documents on the draft report raise questions, it is said.
Because this leaves open the extent to which efforts by these states to adhere to the Paris goals can be taken seriously.
Which report is meant exactly remains unclear.
But the leak shows that a number of countries and organizations argue that the world does not need to reduce fossil fuel consumption as quickly as the current draft report recommends.
For example, an advisor to the Saudi oil ministry has called for wording such as "the need for urgent and accelerated mitigation measures at all levels" to be removed from the report.
A senior Australian government official, the report said, declined to conclude that the shutdown of coal-fired power plants was necessary.
The end of coal use is one of the declared goals of the COP26 conference.
Australia exports large quantities of coal and Saudi Arabia is one of the largest oil producers in the world.
Some of the countries apparently see underground storage of climate-damaging carbon dioxide as a solution to the climate problem, including Saudi Arabia, China, Australia and Japan - all of which are large producers or users of fossil fuels. For the time being, this technology, which was still expensive, is only considered to be a supplementary measure in the fight against climate change. In addition, the carbon capture and storage (CCS) economy is still in its infancy. According to the UN report, technology could play a role in the future, but it is noted that there are uncertainties about its feasibility. A previous IPCC report had already stated something similar.
Instead, it has been claimed that carbon storage could drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions from power plants and some industrial sectors. Saudi Arabia urges UN scientists to delete their conclusion that the focus of decarbonization efforts in the energy sector must be on the rapid transition to carbon-free sources and active phasing out of fossil fuels. Argentina, Norway and OPEC also contradict the statement.
The researchers at the IPCC apparently rate the attempts to influence this as less dramatic. Government comments are central to the scientific review process. But the authors are not required to include them in the reports. "Our processes are designed to prevent lobbying - from all sides," the BBC report quotes the IPCC. In addition, there is no doubt about the impartiality of the reports. All comments would be checked from a purely scientific point of view, regardless of where they came from, said the climate researcher Corinne le Quéré from the University of East Anglia, who herself was involved in three IPCC reports, the "BBC".
So it is not surprising that a country or an industry tries to enforce its own interests.
The big meat producers Argentina and Brazil argue against a reduction in meat consumption, which according to the draft report is necessary in order to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Glasgow without many Pacific states
Climate experts and activists meanwhile fear that a completely different circumstance will have a negative impact on the climate conference in Glasgow. Because of the corona pandemic, many small island states and territories in the Pacific are planning not to send their own government representatives to Glasgow. But that is important because these nations in particular are severely affected by climate change. At a meeting of the Pacific regional organizations, it was confirmed that seven of these countries did not want to send their own representatives to Great Britain, 13 would intend to do so despite Corona. Among the absent countries are the Marshall Islands or Vanuatu.
You may want to bundle interests and compare them with other delegations.
But overall fewer representatives from this region of the world will be present this year than usual - also because high travel costs play a role.
The personal presence of these state representatives played a role in efforts to contain climate change at the Paris climate conference, said the opposition leader from Vanuatu, according to a report by the Guardian.
Many of the Pacific states had managed to keep the pandemic out of their territories.
Therefore, it is too risky to risk the introduction of the virus and the illness of important heads of state or to implement lengthy quarantines due to such a long journey, it said.
joe
