Saturday, November 17, 2007

Opec lines up $3bn green research fund. And, Oil producing states need not fear climate change measures, says UN official

The first story is from the Times of India:

RIYADH: For long, oil producers have been painted as villains contributing to climate change. All that could be a thing of the past soon.

Opec, the cartel of oil exporters, is gearing up to do its bit to clear the air. It is weighing the option of setting up a fund to develop technology such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) for cutting emissions....

The second story is from the Associated Press of Pakistan:

The international battle against the effects of global warming represents a war against emissions rather than oil, the top UN climate change official told a gathering of the world’s oil producers on Thursday. Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told a high-level seminar hosted by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that the fight offered economic opportunities for the group’s members, according to a press release issued at UN Headquarters in New York.

“International action on climate change is a war against emissions, not a war against oil,” he said. “Oil will continue to play a pivotal role in the global energy mix for decades to come, not least due to growing global energy demand. But oil will have to be de-carbonized with adequate technologies. OPEC can deliver a big part of the solution to climate change.”.MORE

Here's Yvo de Boer's statement to OPEC:

Third OPEC Summit
"Energy and the Environment: Complementarities and Opportunities"
(6 page PDF)