Saudi Arabia and Australia have reportedly tried to tone down calls for an early end to fossil fuels. Switzerland was probably interested in money. More precisely: on financial injections for the poorest countries.
London (AP) – Several countries have tried to downplay the need to move away from fossil fuels quickly in a UN report on climate change, according to a BBC report.
This emerges from documents from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which Greenpeace activists were able to obtain and shared with the BBC. According to this, Saudi Arabia and Australia, among others, have advocated that calls for an early end to fossil fuels be weakened or removed altogether in the report.
The report is an important basis for negotiations at the next United Nations global climate conference in Glasgow in early November.
Switzerland allegedly tried to minimize financial aid
The IPCC, or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as the group is known in German, has stressed that government comments are an essential part of the review process for the draft report, which is produced every six to seven years. The scientists involved are under no pressure to accept the proposals.
The documents shared with reporters include around 32,000 submissions from various governments, businesses and interest groups, according to the BBC. For the most part, they are written constructively and aim to improve the quality of the UN final report, according to the BBC.
Switzerland, among others, has tried, for example, to weaken the references to the importance of financial assistance from the richest countries to the poorest countries in the fight against climate change. Arguments against the recommendation to reduce meat consumption came from Brazil and Argentina.
Several countries, including China and Japan, advocate technologies that bind rather than prevent CO2 emissions. According to the BBC, several mainly Eastern European countries are campaigning for a more positive view of nuclear energy.
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