Leaders of OPEC, responsible for meeting more than 40% of the world's
oil needs, is to launch this weekend an environmental initiative that
seeks to bring together producers and consumers in funding the capture
of carbon dioxide emissions, official sources said Thursday.
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 back the
technologies needed to reduce the environmental impact of fuel use.
OPEC one-time acting Secretary General and director of
research Adnan Shihab-Eldin refused to confirm the proposal would be
the central plank of the meeting, 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 confere