By Ed King
RTCC in Doha
Four Gulf States have broken with tradition and claim to be ready to submit an emission reduction plan to the UN climate convention.
UN climate summit hosts Qatar, together with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates say they are ready to submit Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), but have not said when they will do it or how ambitious these will be.
The four countries represent around 27% of the world’s proven oil reserves and 12% of its gas.
In a statement sent to the UNFCCC they say: “Some countries have special circumstances that have made them reluctant to formally submit the domestic actions they are taking or plan to undertake to the Convention for recognition.
“For some countries, high economic reliance on hydrocarbon production puts mitigation actions potentially in conflict with national development objectives.”
Reacting to the statement, Nick Mabey from environmental organisation E3G said: “The optimistic interpretation is that this ambiguous pledge represents a shift of Gulf countries to realise they must move to a low carbon diversified economy.
“But until we see some substance on top of these expressions of intent we won’t know how serious they are and if this truly signals a new era of cooperation in the Gulf.”