Top representatives of the oil producer group OPEC defended a future role for fossil fuels at the UN climate conference on Wednesday, arguing the world can slash greenhouse gas emissions without swearing off oil and gas.
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The arguments clashed with the efforts of the summit's British hosts to secure ambitious pledges from world governments to tackle climate change by cutting fossil fuel consumption, as negotiators entered the final days of talks.
"It is imperative that we recognize the diversity of climate solutions, and the importance of emissions ... without any bias towards or against any particular source of energy," Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud said in a speech to the conference.
"The narrative that the energy transition is from oil and other fossil fuels to renewables is misleading," OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo of Nigeria said.
Advocates of oil, gas and coal have long argued that technologies like carbon capture and sequestration, in which emissions are captured and stored underground, can allow economies to keep burning fossils.
Climate activists reject that, saying such technology is expensive, unproven at scale, and only provides cover to polluting industries to continue operating.
