IEA Questions OPEC’s Need for Climate Compensation (Update1)
By Rachel Graham and Mathew Carr
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The head of the International Energy Agency questioned whether Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations should get compensation for lower sales that stem from an international climate-protection plan.
Saudi Arabia, the biggest supplier in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is seeking to enlist other oil- producing countries to request compensation should oil consumption fall to combat global warming, the New York Times reported yesterday.
IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka told reporters in Paris today that OPEC’s oil production would still increase under ambitious plans to limit greenhouse gases and keep temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above levels before the industrial. “Do they really need to be compensated?” he said.
The IEA said in an Oct. 6 report issued in Bangkok that under the scenario that limits carbon dioxide to 450 parts per million in the atmosphere, OPEC oil revenues will jump to about $23 trillion during 2008-2030, a fourfold increase on the 1985- 2007 period. The Paris-based IEA is a policy adviser to 28 industrialized nations.
Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said he would support Saudi Arabia’s position in climate negotiations.
“If the world is asking us to put huge investment and they are asking to put in new capacity, we want to be sure that somebody will take this new capacity,” the minister said in an interview in the Qatari capital of Doha today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Graham in London at rgraham13@bloomberg.net; Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.net
