OPEC wants aid...

[Texan]

OPEC wants aid if world shifts to renewable energies

MILAN, Italy (Reuters) -- A dispute over aid to OPEC states clouded the last day of a U.N. conference on global warming on Friday with the Kyoto protocol hanging by a thread amid uncertainties over Russian ratification.

Kyoto backers reaffirmed their support for the 1997 pact despite scant progress at the 12-day Milan talks on ways to fight rising temperatures blamed for more droughts, storms and for melting glaciers that may raise sea levels.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, whose country holds the key to whether Kyoto enters into force, told Japanese media in an interview published on Friday that Moscow was preparing a "special action plan" to ratify it but gave no deadline for signing the pact.

Kyoto aims to cut rich countries' emissions of carbon dioxide by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

Those in favor of Kyoto at the 180-nation talks welcomed his remarks, which follow a string of apparently contradictory statements from Moscow about the deal to rein in emissions from factories, cars and power plants blamed for global warming.

"The Kyoto protocol is the only game in town," German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin told a news conference, expressing confidence that Russia would ratify.

Delegates said that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, wanted promises of aid if Kyoto spurs a shift to renewable energies like tidal, solar or wind energy at the expense of fossil fuels.

But Trittin said that the European Union only wanted to help the poorest states adapt to climate change. "If such a fund is misused for targets we don't share, because it is a voluntary fund we won't pay," he said.

Countries led by the EU have promised about $410 million extra a year to help developing countries. A Special Climate Change Fund is likely to total about $50 million a year and would be bankrupted if it were to help OPEC states.

[Flayer]

I think it'll be hard enough to meet the kyoto restrictions without helping those rich polluting opec bastards, they are the last of my worries when it comes to climate change. </un-nuanced opinion>

[H1TMANish]

Originally Posted by idimmu

what is opec and why do they want aid?

opec is a group of 11 countries who export petrolium, all developing, (saudi arabia, indonesia, algeria etc) and they would want aid if we all decide to use renewable energy cos they would be fked.

i doubt thats a threat to them just yet tho, US would have invaded them all before that happens :o

[Edit] damn smilies

[Bunga]

I think it stands for Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

[Kurashima]

Bearing in Mind OPEC has ****loads of cash, why dont they simply stack their cash for the next 25 years , and then use it to develop large volumes of solar power in their own countries.

Maybe im just being naive in believing this is greedy , oil rich states wanting to have their cake, and when its gone, be given someone elses cake as well.

[Flayer]

what he said

[wu_trax]

i also want a lot of things, especially lots of money for doing nothing. unfortunatly i dont get them.
MAYBE the opec countries should spend some of their money into developing their economies so that they dont depend on oil forever. i mean instead of buying lots of expensive cars.
they will run out of oil someday anyway, with or without kyoto.

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

Bearing in Mind OPEC has ****loads of cash, why dont they simply stack their cash for the next 25 years , and then use it to develop large volumes of solar power in their own countries.

I think their point is, in the long-term, when people stop buying oil, their economies will go bye-bye. (Especially ridiculously oil-centric states like the gulf ones.) Thus any drops in oil purchasing should be compensated by other money to build up other sectors of the economy, I would assume.


The story is pretty bloody inane, mind.

[Texan]

Holy mother of God. Kura, Wu_Trax, and I agree on a subject.

You guys are slipping. Next thing you know we will be agreeing on abortion and the death penalty. Kill babies, not criminals.