Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Earth

Saudis blocking reductions in fossil-fuel consumption

25 April 2007

“THEIR objective was to make it more difficult for decision-makers to connect actions with risks. Because they want to sell oil? Probably.”

That’s how Gary Yohe of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, describes Saudi Arabia’s tactics at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change negotiations earlier this month (Âé¶¹´«Ã½, 14 April, p 11). The upshot? Oil heavyweights influenced the report’s summary for policy-makers so that it does not show as clearly as it might how reducing fossil fuel burning could limit the impacts of climate change on human society.

Yohe, a coordinating lead author for the IPCC, acknowledges that nations…

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