Saudi Arabia 'Seeks to Protect Oil-Based Economy' at Paris Climate Talks

Saudi Arabia is trying to protect its oil-based economy at the Paris Climate Change Conference by blocking a number of key initiatives, Egypt's Environment Minister Khaled Fahmy told Sputnik on Monday.

PARIS (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — On Sunday, Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G), an NGO with observer status at the conference, told Sputnik that Saudi Arabia was blocking the ongoing talks on a number of fronts, such as financing the needs of the most vulnerable nations or mentioning the 1.5 degrees aim in the text.

"Saudi Arabia has such position for their own reasons — because of the need to diversify their economy if there are restrictions on fossil fuels. They need time," Fahmy said.

Fahmy, who is also the chair of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), added that these differences were bound to be resolved.

The Paris Climate Change Conference, held between November 30 and December 11, is expected to result in the signing of an agreement on climate change necessary to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius, as an increase of average global temperatures of 2 degrees or more has been scientifically proven to have disastrous consequences for the planet.