The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Climate Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • Pipeline Politics
      • COP24
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Podcasts & Webinars
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • About Us
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Partners
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • Climate & Society
    • Carbon-Free Transition
    • Carbon Levels & Measurement
    • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
    • Climate Denial
    • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
    • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
    • Demographics
    • Energy Politics
    • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
    • Energy Subsidies
    • Finance & Investment
    • First Peoples
    • Insurance & Liability
    • International Agencies & Studies
    • Jobs
    • Legal & Regulatory
    • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
    • Methane
    • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
  • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
    • Biodiversity & Habitat
    • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
    • Food Security
    • Forests & Deforestation
    • Health & Safety
    • Heat & Temperature
    • Human Rights & Equity
    • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
    • International Security, Migration & War
    • Severe Storms & Flooding
    • Soil & Natural Sequestration
    • Water
  • Demand & Distribution
    • Air & Marine
    • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
    • Batteries/Storage
    • Buildings
    • Cities
    • Electricity Grid
    • Energy Access & Equity
    • Off-Grid
    • Petrochemicals & Plastics
    • Supply Chains & Consumption
    • Transit
    • Walking & Biking
  • Jurisdictions
    • Africa
    • Arctic & Antarctica
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Brazil
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • India
    • International
    • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
    • Middle East
    • Oceans
    • Small Island States
    • South & Central America
    • Sub-National Governments
    • United States
  • Non-Renewable Energy
    • CCS & Geoengineering
    • Coal
    • Nuclear
    • Oil & Gas
    • Pipelines/Rail Transport
    • Shale & Fracking
    • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
  • Renewable Energy
    • Bioenergy
    • Demand & Efficiency
    • General Renewables
    • Geothermal
    • Hydro
    • Research & Development
    • Solar
    • Wave & Tidal
    • Wind

logo

The Energy Mix

  • Climate & Society
    • Carbon-Free Transition
    • Carbon Levels & Measurement
    • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
    • Climate Denial
    • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
    • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
    • Demographics
    • Energy Politics
    • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
    • Energy Subsidies
    • Finance & Investment
    • First Peoples
    • Insurance & Liability
    • International Agencies & Studies
    • Jobs
    • Legal & Regulatory
    • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
    • Methane
    • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
  • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
    • Biodiversity & Habitat
    • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
    • Food Security
    • Forests & Deforestation
    • Health & Safety
    • Heat & Temperature
    • Human Rights & Equity
    • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
    • International Security, Migration & War
    • Severe Storms & Flooding
    • Soil & Natural Sequestration
    • Water
  • Demand & Distribution
    • Air & Marine
    • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
    • Batteries/Storage
    • Buildings
    • Cities
    • Electricity Grid
    • Energy Access & Equity
    • Off-Grid
    • Petrochemicals & Plastics
    • Supply Chains & Consumption
    • Transit
    • Walking & Biking
  • Jurisdictions
    • Africa
    • Arctic & Antarctica
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Brazil
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • India
    • International
    • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
    • Middle East
    • Oceans
    • Small Island States
    • South & Central America
    • Sub-National Governments
    • United States
  • Non-Renewable Energy
    • CCS & Geoengineering
    • Coal
    • Nuclear
    • Oil & Gas
    • Pipelines/Rail Transport
    • Shale & Fracking
    • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
  • Renewable Energy
    • Bioenergy
    • Demand & Efficiency
    • General Renewables
    • Geothermal
    • Hydro
    • Research & Development
    • Solar
    • Wave & Tidal
    • Wind
Advanced Search
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Climate Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • Pipeline Politics
      • COP24
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Podcasts & Webinars
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • About Us
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Partners
  • Contact
Climate Policy/Meetings/NegotiationsDrive to 1.5International Agencies & StudiesMiddle EastNational Plans & Responses
Home›Climate & Society›Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations›Saudi Arabia Made Best Efforts to Stall IPCC Science Report

Saudi Arabia Made Best Efforts to Stall IPCC Science Report

October 7, 2018
October 7, 2018
 
138
0
Share:
  •  
  • 14
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
    14
    Shares
  Print This Story
Mohammed Bin Salman/Facebook

It wouldn’t have been a United Nations climate negotiation without one of the world’s most profligate fossil fuel producers (and human rights abusers) trying to bog down the proceedings and water down a final report. And several news reports had Saudi Arabia doing exactly that as the IPCC meeting in Incheon, South Korea went into overtime Saturday.

“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,” Agence France-Presse reported.

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

“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 one meeting participant, who declined to be identified.

“This has become a battle between Saudi Arabia, a rich oil producer, and small island states threatened with extinction,” added another participant.

“The Saudis have been running interference across the board, on main and minor issues,” said a third.

Although IPCC processes didn’t allow countries to alter the science in the main report on 1.5°C scenarios, the battle lines were drawn over the 20-page summary for policy-makers (SPM)—the shorter, more readable synthesis intended to give non-scientist decision-makers a basis for action. “Under the IPCC’s consensus rules, all countries must sign off on the language” in the SPM, AFP notes. “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 1.5°C.”

Saudi Arabia apparently challenged that language, even though it’s common knowledge that full implementation of the Paris Agreement would deliver average global warming in the 3.0°C range, possibly higher.

“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,” AFP noted. But “it’s quite rare that a government will be willing to have their name on the bottom of the page with an asterisk,” said IPCC Communications Director Jonathan Lynn. “We do everything we can to avoid it.”

AFP noted that “Saudi Arabia has a long track record of raising questions and objections within UN climate forums.”

Share:
  •  
  • 14
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
    14
    Shares
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
Climate Policy/Meetings/NegotiationsDrive to 1.5International Agencies & StudiesMiddle EastNational Plans & Responses

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Subscribe to The Energy Mix

    The Energy Mix is your guide to climate change and energy issues and solutions. Whether you’re looking for the latest content on the impacts of climate change, the fossil industries that produce the emissions, renewable energy and energy efficiency alternatives, or climate solutions outside energy, you’ve come to the right place. Please send us your comments and story ideas!

    SEE OUR LATEST DIGEST

    Recent Posts

    CanadaCarbon Levels & MeasurementClimate Policy/Meetings/NegotiationsCoalElectricity GridInternational Agencies & StudiesMethaneOil & GasShale & FrackingTar Sands/Oil SandsUnited States

    U.S., Canadian Fossils to Lead $1.4 Trillion in New Oil and Gas Development Through 2024

    Fossils in the United States and Canada are leading plans to invest another US$1.4 trillion in new oil and gas extraction projects over the next five years, even though the ...
    • Denmark to Cut Emissions 70% by 2030 While New Zealand Adopts Climate Policy Lens

      Full Story: Climate Home News @ClimateHome

      December 9, 2019
       
      Primary Author Jocelyn Timperley @jloistf
      December 9, 2019
    • Need to Get It Right: Article 6 Could Trigger Faster Carbon Cuts or Massive Greenwashing

      December 9, 2019
       
      Primary Author Mitchell Beer @mitchellbeer
      December 9, 2019
    • Businesses See Climate Action Emerging as Job Creator, Economic Driver: Pittis

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Ottawa Approves Alberta Tax on Industrial Carbon Emitters

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Carbon Pricing ‘Isn’t the Only Tool in the Toolbox’: Wilkinson

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Former Oilpatch Roughneck Traces Hardships of Fossil Employment, Urges Better Deal in Carbon-Free Transition

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Saudi Aramco IPO Shows Weakening Global Oil Market, Perils for ‘Wexit Albertans’

      December 9, 2019
       
      Primary Author Compiled by The Energy Mix staff/ Mitchell Anderson
      December 9, 2019
    • Navajo Coal Plant Closure Opens Door for Solar+Storage, Distributed Power

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Sunrise Colorado Spreads Fake News with Mocked-Up Letter from Denver Mayor’s Office

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Did Kenney Just Link the Moody’s Ratings Agency to His Anti-Alberta Conspiracy Theory?

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Washington State Shifts Ferry Fleet from Diesel to Batteries

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Tree Intercropping Would Save 17.2 Gigatons of Carbon by 2050

      December 9, 2019
       
      December 9, 2019
    • Throne speech Ottawa 2019 climate action emissions Trudeau Payette

      Wilkinson Vows Tougher 2030 Emissions Target as Throne Speech Promises Net-Zero by 2050

      December 6, 2019
       
      Primary Author Compiled by The Energy Mix staff
      December 6, 2019
    • Canadian Food Prices Set to Rise $487 Per Family, with Climate a Major Cause

      December 6, 2019
       
      December 6, 2019

    Partners

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    Copyright 2019 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.