The appeal came from the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), gathering low-lying islands in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Pacific, which is lobbying hard for the UN climate arena not to abandon the 1.5 C target.
The goal is receding as emissions of greenhouse gases rise and political problems for tackling climate change multiply.
AOSIS, supported by the European Union (EU), Australia and New Zealand, called for a technical report on the cost of reaching the 1.5 C target and the consequences of breaching it.
But it was thwarted by Saudi Arabia, with support from Kuwait and Qatar, under the UN’s consensus rule, the sources said.
Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers argue that ratcheting up action on carbon emissions will hurt their revenues as fossil-fuel consumers switch to cleaner energy. The spat soured the mood in Bonn, where a 12-day round under the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) draws to a close on Friday.
“The atmosphere in the meeting was very bad. Many countries said they were very disappointed with the Saudis,” said one source.
“Some small island states could become stateless from sea level rise, which is why they are calling for global temperature rise to be kept below 1.5 C,” added Wendel Trio of Greenpeace.
“That Saudi Arabia, a country with such obvious oil interests, exploited the UN consensus rule to stop the world’s most vulnerable countries from getting a much-needed summary of the latest climate science is breathtaking for its criminal disregard for the human impacts of climate change.”
The UNFCCC is tasked with shepherding the world’s nations to a new treaty on climate change that would take effect from 2012.
But the arena is still struggling to recover from a bust-up in Copenhagen last December.
