Saudi’s Naimi: Climate Change Policies Unfairly Taxing Oil

NEW YORK – Some industrialized countries are unfairly placing high taxes on petroleum products to discourage consumption as a method of addressing climate change, while encouraging greater use of polluting coal and nuclear power, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi said.

Naimi told the United Nations meeting on climate change in a speech Monday that these unspecified countries, while lumping taxes on oil, are “at the same time providing direct and indirect aid for the industries of coal and nuclear energy which are the most polluting sources,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
The oil minister of the world’s largest oil exporter, and the de facto leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said these selective policies impact oil demand growth and contribute to “a negative impact on the march of development in our country.”

Naimi urged the world body to pursue policies to address climate change in a manner that ensures appropriate solutions “while maintaining the continued growth of the global economy.”

Naimi said the Saudi government looks forward to the start of negotiations in the second period of the Kyoto Protocol starting next year and is “ready for an international agreement in this area.”

He stressed that the agreement should be based on the understandings that differentiate responsibility between developed and developing countries, and the principle that no country assume any greater burden than its fair share.

Schlumberger