LONDON - Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia sought to revise a key climate change report over wariness of swiftly moving away from fossil fuels documents leaked to British media show.
The report, part of which was released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August, had stated that fossil fuel use must be cut substantially to keep global warming between 1.5 C and 2 C compared with pre-industrial levels.
Documents leaked to the BBC included tens of thousands of requests submitted by governments, companies and other interested parties to the team of scientists preparing IPCC report. In addition to Japan, Saudi Arabia and major oil producer Australia were among the countries that lobbyed for changes.
OPEC is pressing to weaken language on reducing fossil fuel usage, according to The Guardian. The newspaper and the BBC both framed the lobbying as an effort to water down the work of the 26th U.N.N.S. Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP 26, which starts at the end of the month in Glasgow.
The IPCC report is drawn every six to seven years and serves as a base for international negotiations on climate change, such as COP 26. The part disclosed in August estimated that if the world continues to rely on fossil fuels, global temperatures will rise faster and will increase by 4.4 C between 2081 and 2100 in the worst-case scenario.
Saudi Arabia sought to delete a conclusion on the need to phase out fossil fuels, as well as phrases like the need for urgent and accelerated mitigation actions at all scales, the BBC reported.
A senior scientist from a research institute with strong links to the Indian government warned that coal will likely remain the mainstay of energy production for decades, according to the broadcaster.
Neither the BBC nor The Guardian provided details on what Japan had requested. The U.K. and European nations increasingly seek to phase out coal power generation. But Japan - aiming to ensure a stable supply of electricity - has merely promised to end government support for overseas coal power projects. Japan is finding it more difficult to parry criticism of its coal use through such means as adopting technologies to boost efficiency.