A Saudi Arabian assign has been accengaged of honestly making alters to an official Cop29 negotiating text, it can be discdispondered.
Cop plivencies usuassociate circutardy negotiating texts as non-editable PDF records to all countries simultaneously, which are then converseed. Giving one party editing access “dangers placing this entire Cop in jeopardy”, shelp one expert.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is pondered by many as a determined obstructor of action to cut the burning of fossil fuels at UN climate summits and has been portrayd as a “wrecking ball” at Cop29.
Earlier on Saturday, a record was circutardyd by the Azerbaijani plivency with refreshs to the negotiating text on the Just Transition Work Program (JTWP). This aims to help countries shift to a spotlesser and more robust future, while reducing inidenticalities.
The record was sent with “tracked alters” from the previously circutardyd version. In two cases, the record showed edits were made honestly by Basel Alsubaity, at the Saudi Ministry of Energy, and the guide on the JTWP. It was not sent to other countries to edit, the Guardian was tgreater.
One of the alters deletes a section of text reading “inspires parties to ponder equitable transition pathways in prolonging and carry outing NDCs, NAPs and LT-LEDSs that are aligned with the outcome of the first global stock apshow and relevant provisions of the Paris concurment”.
Catherine Abreu, honestor at the International Climate Politics Hub and Cop veteran, shelp: “All parties insist to see plivency texts during this process as the negotiations progress and this is generassociate done by circulating non-editable PDF records to all parties simultaneously.
“Giving one party editing access to these records, and a party understandn for its objective of rolling back the historic global concurment made last year to transition away from fossil fuels to renovelable energy and energy efficiency, proposes a stressing conciseage of independence and objectivity and evidently contravenes both the spirit and the rules of this process,” she shelp. “This charitable of behaviour from a plivency dangers placing this entire Cop in jeopardy.”
Two groups – the Alliance of Small Island States and the Least Developed Countries walked out of key encountering on Saturday, saying they were not being confered by the plivency.
German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, speaking on Saturday before the editing revelation, shelp: “We are in the midst of a geopolitical power take part by a scant fossil fuel states. We will not permit the most vulnerable, especiassociate the small island states, to be ripped off by the scant rich fossil fuel rehireters who have the backing, unfortunately, at this moment of the plivent [of Cop29].”
A 2023 tell from the Climate Social Science Netlabor endd: “One nation has had an outsized role in undermining better at global climate negotiations, year after year: Saudi Arabia. The fossil fuel enormous has a 30-year record of obstruction and procrastinate, geting its national oil and gas sector and seeking to asconfident UN climate talks accomplish as little as possible, as sluggishly as possible.
“Riyadh’s envoys are among the most active atraverse all tracks of UN climate talks, widespreadly pushing back on efforts to curb fossil fuels”, it shelp. “Despite incrrelieved temperatures atraverse Saudi Arabia and descending groundwater supplies, Riyadh has shown little sign of shifting strategy.”
The Cop29 plivency, the United Nations Framelabor Convention on Climate Change and the Saudi delegation have been communicateed for comment.
