RIYADH, 9 November — Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi has said that the report of the European Union’s Inter-Parliamentary Consultative Committee (IPCC) vindicates the stand of Saudi Arabia and other OPEC member states that the policies pursued by industrialized countries within the framework of Kyoto Protocol on environmental protection will have a negative impact on the economies of oil-producing countries.
The Saudi oil minister was speaking at the seventh annual session of the signatories to the UN agreement on environmental changes at Marrakech (Morocco) yesterday. A copy of his speech was released by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources here.
Referring to the IPCC report at the conference, Al-Naimi said that a change in their policies would help to minimize their negative impact on the economies of oil-producing countries.
"We have been calling for this change for a long time," the minister said.
He said the report calls for a restructuring of the industrialized countries’ taxation system. The present level of taxation, he pointed out, harms the interests of petroleum products’ exporters and encourages the use of environmentally harmful material like coal and nuclear energy. This is evident from the policy of providing direct and indirect subsidies followed in many countries, the minister said.
Al-Naimi called for concerted action to reduce the negative impact on countries totally dependent on petroleum exports.
"They should not wait for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Our countries are not in a position to bear the burden of taxation provided for under the Kyoto Protocol."
He said one way of toning down the negative effect was to invest in those countries and help them to diversify their economic base. This would enable them to reduce their dependence on oil exports.
