Daily US Times: A huge leak of documents shows how nations are trying to change a key scientific report on how to tackle climate change.
The leak reveals Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia are among countries asking the United Nations to play down the need to move rapidly away from fossil fuels.
The leak also shows some wealthy nations are questioning paying more to poorer countries to move to greener technologies.
This revelation of “lobbying” raises questions for the COP26 climate summit in November.
It shows countries pushing back on recommendations from the UN for action just days before they will be asked to make significant commitments to slow down climate change and keep global warming to 1.5 degrees.
The leaked documents consist of more than 32,000 submissions made by companies, governments and other interested parties to the team of scientists compiling a UN report designed to bring together the best scientific evidence on how to tackle climate change.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produced these “assessment reports” in every six to seven years. IPCC IS the UN body tasked with evaluating the science of climate change.
The report will be a crucial input to negotiations at the Glasgow conference and it will be used by governments to decide what action is needed to tackle climate change.
The documents shows a number of countries and organizations arguing that the world doesn’t need to reduce fossil fuel usage as quickly as the current draft of the report recommends.
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