Reply #2: OPEC says British climate change report "unfounded" (Reuters)

[Eugene]

OPEC says British climate change report "unfounded"
31 Oct 2006 08:43:29 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Tanya Mosolova

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) - A hard-hitting report on climate change published
by the British government on Monday has no basis in science or economics,
OPEC's Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said on Tuesday.

The report written by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said
that failure to tackle climate change could push world temperatures up by 5
degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) over the next century, causing severe floods
and harsh droughts and uprooting many as 200 million people.

The study recommended taking action now to offset the far greater cost of
dealing with climate change later.

But Barkindo told an energy conference in Moscow that the Organisation of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) -- which holds around two thirds of the
world's oil reserves -- opposed such research efforts. "We find some of the
so-called initiatives of the rich industrialised countries who are supposed
to take the lead in combating climate change rather alarming," he said.

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Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31174050.htm