Which countries are the barriers to a fossil fuel deal?published at 17:33 GMT
17:33 GMT
Mark Poynting
Climate reporter
Image source, Reuters
As we’ve mentioned, dozens of countries have supported Brazil’s call for a
fossil fuel “roadmap” – a plan for how to move away from coal, oil and gas, the
main causes of climate change.
But the idea has strong opposition, particularly from major
fossil fuel producers.
French Environment Minister Monique Barbut said yesterday that the deal was being blocked by “oil-producing countries – Russia, India, Saudi Arabia,
but joined by many emerging countries”.
The reasons are obvious. These countries either have huge reserves of fossil fuels or rely heavily on them to power their economies.
Some developing countries argue they should be allowed to exploit their reserves as other countries have done in the past.
And they have often argued for the focus to be on reducing
emissions, rather than fossil fuels.
But without technologies to capture the emissions from fossil
fuels – which are not widely available – burning more coal, oil and gas means more
warming.
And that would mean climate change continuing to get worse.