OPEC draws ire at climate talks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) —Negotiations over the future of fossil fuels heated up at United Nations climate talks on Saturday, with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries catching flak over the oil cartel's push to block any phase-out in the final deal.

The tone has veered between optimism and concern about the pace of talks as negotiators have held marathon sessions aimed at finding a compromise on the fate of oil, gas and coal.

OPEC added fuel to the fire after it emerged that its Kuwaiti secretary general, Haitham Al Ghais, sent a letter to the group's 13 members and 10 allies this week urging them to "proactively reject" any language that "targets" fossil fuels instead of emissions.

"I think that it is quite, quite a disgusting thing that OPEC countries are pushing against getting the bar where it has to be," Spanish ecology transition minister Teresa Ribera, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, told reporters.

Dramatically scaling up the deployment of renewable energy while winding down the production and consumption of fossil fuels is crucial to achieve the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The High Ambition Coalition, a broad group of nations ranging from Barbados to France, Kenya and Pacific island states, also criticized the OPEC move.

"Nothing puts the prosperity and future of all people on Earth, including all of the citizens of OPEC countries, at greater risk than fossil fuels," Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, which chairs the coalition, said.

"1.5 is not negotiable, and that means an end to fossil fuels," Stege added.

Iraq supports OPEC

A third draft deal released Friday offers various ways to phase out of fossil fuels, but it also includes the option to not mention them at all in the final text.

Saudi Arabia had until now been the most vocal country against a phase-out or phase-down of fossil fuels.

In the OPEC letter sent Wednesday, Ghais said it "seems that the undue and disproportionate pressure against fossil fuels may reach a tipping point with irreversible consequences."

Assem Jihad, spokesperson for Iraq's oil ministry, told Agence France-Presse his country supports the OPEC letter.    

WITH AFP