OSLO/LONDON, (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is a special case in need of climate aid if the world shifts to clean energy, the world’s top oil exporter told the United Nations ahead of a Monday deadline for proposals about slowing global warming.
Almost 200 nations agreed in Mexico in December to a package of measures including a new fund to help poor nations, due to be worth $100 billion annually from 2020, find ways to adapt to climate change and protect tropical forests.
That deal set a Feb. 21 deadline for detailed comments.
Saudi Arabia said that it would need help to develop solar power and financial aid to diversify, as it was “among the most vulnerable economies”, dependent on oil exports whose use may be curbed under a climate deal.
“Impacts are expected to be massive and deep,” it said of countries dependent on fossil fuels, noting that oil makes up half Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product and 90 percent of its export earnings.
Many other developing countries — including the poorest in Africa and Pacific island states at risk of rising sea levels — have expressed irritation that OPEC nations harp on about their vulnerability.
Saudi Arabia’s gross national income per capita was about $25,000 in 2008, similar to that of New Zealand, according to the U.N. Development Programme.
Countries have squabbled for many years on sharing the cost of carbon emissions cuts and the benefit of funds, making a comprehensive deal increasingly unlikely from 2013 after the present round of the Kyoto Protocol expires.
They are meant to agree this year fine print including how to share funds meant for countries which are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, and to raise money, for example from carbon markets.
