OPEC to launch environmental fund to decrease carbon dioxide emissions

OPEC is going to establish an environmental fund in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, it will bring together oil producers and energy consuming countries to contribute to it.

Photo: OPEC to launch environmental fund to decrease carbon dioxide emissions

The initiative, which may be a core policy outcome from an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Heads of State summit here Saturday and Sunday, envisages a fund that energy consuming countries and oil producers contribute to in order to support the technologies reducing the environmental impact of fuel use, said the officials on condition of anonymity ahead of the conference.

OPEC one-time acting secretary general and director of research Adnan Shihab-Eldin refused to confirm the proposal, but told Dow Jones Newswires in an exclusive interview that such a plan would require huge sums of money.

"I don't know how much money, I am not a decision maker, but we should talk about billions of dollars," he said.

The process "will pay for itself eventually because you will succeed in making more oil and that extra oil can pay for the process."

Depleted OPEC oil fields could be used to store carbon emissions and dying fields could see their output boosted by the injection of such emissions, he added.

The plan comes just weeks ahead of a major U.N. climate conference in Bali, which top OPEC officials, including Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi, are due to attend.