Countries lobbying to reduce climate change goals ahead of COP26, reveal leaked documents

Many countries are lobbying to change a crucial scientific report on how to tackle climate change, a massive leak of documents revealed.

According to the document, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia are among countries asking the UN to play down the need to move rapidly away from fossil fuels, reports the BBC.

The report also shows that some wealthy nations are questioning the report’s recommendation on paying more to poorer states to move to greener technologies.

The leak comes ahead of the crucial COP26 climate summit that is scheduled to take place in November in Glasgow, Scotland, to discuss about the countries commitment to slow down climate change and keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Watch

The leaked documents consist of more than 32,000 submissions made by governments, companies 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.

Also read | COP26: Sponsors deem the climate summit as ‘mismanaged’ and 'very last minute'

The leak allegedly showed a number of countries and organisations arguing against the reduced use of fossil fuels as quickly as the current draft of the report recommends.

An adviser to the Saudi oil ministry demands phrases like ‘the need for urgent and accelerated mitigation actions at all scales… should be eliminated from the report’.

Also read | COP26 must address 'unprecedented' climate crisis, Pope Francis warns

One senior Australian government official rejects the conclusion that closing coal-fired power plants is necessary, even though ending the use of coal is one of the stated objectives of the COP26 conference, BBC’s report stated citing the documents.

 The leaked documents also claim that a senior scientist from India's Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, a government-funded autonomous research institute, had warned that coal is likely to remain the mainstay of energy production for decades because of what they describe as the “tremendous challenges” of providing affordable electricity. India is already the world's second-biggest consumer of coal.

Brazil and Argentina, two of the biggest producers of beef products and animal feed crops in the world, argue strongly against evidence in the draft report that reducing meat consumption is necessary to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

(With inputs from agencies)