Saudis ask for aid if world cuts dependence on oil

[Qcanfixit]

Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...y/6657947.html



Saudis ask for aid if world cuts dependence on oil
Associated Press
Oct. 8, 2009, 5:42AM


BANGKOK — There are plenty of needy countries at the U.N. climate talks in Bangkok that make the case they need financial assistance to adapt to the impacts of global warming. Then there are the Saudis.


Saudi Arabia has led a quiet campaign during these and other negotiations — demanding behind closed doors that oil-producing nations get special financial assistance if a new climate pact calls for substantial reductions in the use of fossil fuels.


That campaign comes despite an International Energy Agency report released this week showing that OPEC revenues would still increase $23 trillion between 2008 and 2030 — a fourfold increase compared to the period from 1985 to 2007 — if countries agree to significantly slash emissions and thereby cut their use of oil. That is the limit most countries agree is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
The head of the Saudi delegation Mohammad S. Al Sabban dismissed the IEA figures as “biased” and said OPEC's own calculations showed that Saudi Arabia would lose $19 billion a year starting in 2012 under a new climate pact. The region would lose much more, he said.


“We are among the economically vulnerable countries,” Al Sabban told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the talks ahead of negotiations in Copenhagen in December for a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.


“This is very serious for us,” he continued. “We are in the process of diversifying our economy but this will take a long time. We don't have too many resources.”


Saudi Arabia, which sits atop the world's largest proven oil reserves, is seeing economic growth slide because of fallout from the global meltdown, but experts still expect the country, flush with cash from oil's earlier price spike last year, to be better able than other nations to cope with the current crisis.


Al Sabban accused Western nations of pursuing an agenda against oil producers, under the guise of protecting the planet.



“Many politicians in the Western world think these climate change negotiations and the new agreement will provide them with a golden opportunity to reduce their dependence on imported oil,” Al Sabban said. “That means you will transfer the burden to developing countries, especially to those highly dependent on the exploitation of oil.”


Al Sabban said his country wanted a new deal and was not impeding progress in talks as some activists have claimed.


An Arab environmental group IndyACT and the environmental group Germanwatch released a report today accusing Saudi Arabia of blocking key elements of the negotiations. Among their tactics, the groups said, was slowing negotiations by insisting that the economic woes of oil producers be included in the text.


“Despite the variability in the region, the current Arab position is mainly focused around protecting the oil trade rather than saving the planet form the adverse impacts of climate change,” said Wael Hmaidan, the executive director of IndyACT.


Most countries have agreed that any new pact should include provisions to avoid temperature increases of more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels — the threshold at which most scientists say serious climate change will ensue.


That would require emissions cuts from industrial countries of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, far above the 15 to 23 percent cuts rich countries have offered so far. It would also require developing countries to scale back their emissions.


Both rich and poor countries are counting on a transition to a low carbon economy as a key component of meeting their reductions, a move that would require them to away from fossil fuels and toward renewables like solar, wind and hydro power.

==========================




awwww... poor babies




some of the comments left in the article are entertaining.

Oh! How can I hold back the tears!!! These people have been holding the World hostage for decades with their oil. I hope they have to go back to living in tents in the sand. I can't believe that they have the baxxs to be considered for some kind of deal or aid. This is my biggest reason for wanting a green world. Put these shysters out of business.

While I don't believe in man-made climate change/global warming/global cooling, I also don't think these money gouging oil terrorists should get any financial aid either. Let them eat oil.

As absurd as this sounds, you can bet the US government won't be able to write checks fast enough to support the Saudi Royal Family. Never mind that, even though all the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, we never once received any reimbursement for any kind of damages, we never received any compensation from the Iraqi people for our unnecessary and elective "war of liberation" of the oppressed Iraqi people. Of course, now we have the O, going around the world apologizing for the U.S. The rest of the world views us morons, who are desperate to buy friends at any price for any reason. And they are right.

I guess Bush will spend even more time holding hands with the Saudi's.

Makes me want to wrap a turban around somebody's NECK.

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[Snoopy]

F'em.

Sell sand instead.

[GrindingGears]

Durka durka

[brendan_mac]

Canada supplies most of the US's oil. Just less than double Saudi Arabia this year.

[BhamRoadrunner]

They should be happy. If we're independent of oil, we'll just have to find other brown people to bomb for some other reason.

[Qcanfixit]

Originally Posted by brendan_mac

Canada supplies most of the US's weed.

fixed

[Mike Wevrick]

Wow, that's some serious chutzpah!

Oh, and remember 1973? Payback's a bitch!

[Mr. Bungle]

Originally Posted by Qcanfixit

fixed

Beasters...

[Kiel]

**** oil producing countries with an agenda.

[Miercoles Cansado]

Every time I think of oil producing countries, I remember that movie "The Stuff." It must be nice to have a natural resource you pull straight from the ground and sell. Many lulz will be had once they run out. No more free government money and foreigners doing all the work. I'm not bitter though.

[Brad Pittiful]

sad thing is...theyll prolly get the aid

[Mike Wevrick]

Oh, and btw what did you do with the first $100 trillion we gave you?

[Brad Pittiful]

Originally Posted by Mike Wevrick

Oh, and btw what did you do with the first $100 trillion we gave you?

bonuses to all the top execs...they learned that from us

[FunkerVogt]

Originally Posted by Mike Wevrick

Oh, and btw what did you do with the first $100 trillion we gave you?

Spent it on armored and gilded Bugatti Veryons with diamond encrusted rims...what else?

[Eyeflyistheeye]

If our government gives them so much as a nickel and justifies it using this stupidity (yes I know we give them $$$$ already), you can bet your hat that I'll be the one leading the revolution.

Any American who supports this idea is a traitor to their nation.

[Drink]

What plans exactly, would make the Saudis ask for such assistance? Is something in the works right now?

[AugustusMaximus]

Lets design a car that runs on broken glass and then nuke the whole damn place.

[Miercoles Cansado]

Q, you've set off a chain reaction. :applause:

[RastaMon]

Originally Posted by Howl

How else are they going pay for this?

[Miercoles Cansado]

Originally Posted by RastaMon

How else are they going pay for this?

I see what you did.

[owace]

seriously f the saudis.

may they all die in an oil fire.

[SQ3.0dotJP]

my how the tables have turned MR. Sandybottom

[Lucky Loser]

Saudis are going to start using the Euro instead of the dollar.

[Qcanfixit]

I think the only reason we kiss their ass now is because they have something we need... if they were to cut off our oil supply we'd be ****ed.


as far as I know, there's only luk oil, citgo and hess that don't import from them.

I think once we don't need them anymore that might change...


then again, maybe not.

[RastaMon]

Originally Posted by Lucky Loser

Saudis are going to start using the Euro instead of the dollar.

Meh, the Euro will collapse someday, just as the dollar will. Fiat currency FTL.

Originally Posted by Qcanfixit

as far as I know, there's only luk oil, citgo and hess that don't import from them.

Sinclair FTW!