From CNN... MILAN, Italy (Reuters) -- A dispute over aid to OPEC states clouded the last day of a U.N. conference on global warming on Friday with the Kyoto protocol hanging by a thread amid uncertainties over Russian ratification. Kyoto backers reaffirmed their support for the 1997 pact despite scant progress at the 12-day Milan talks on ways to fight rising temperatures blamed for more droughts, storms and for melting glaciers that may raise sea levels. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, whose country holds the key to whether Kyoto enters into force, told Japanese media in an interview published on Friday that Moscow was preparing a "special action plan" to ratify it but gave no deadline for signing the pact. Kyoto aims to cut rich countries' emissions of carbon dioxide by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Those in favor of Kyoto at the 180-nation talks welcomed his remarks, which follow a string of apparently contradictory statements from Moscow about the deal to rein in emissions from factories, cars and power plants blamed for global warming. "The Kyoto protocol is the only game in town," German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin told a news conference, expressing confidence that Russia would ratify. The United States has called Kyoto fatally flawed and pulled out in 2001. Delegates said that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, wanted promises of aid if Kyoto spurs a shift to renewable energies like tidal, solar or wind energy at the expense of fossil fuels. Full article here... Now I don't know too much about the Kyoto protocol, but as far as OPEC wanting promises of aid if the world shifts to renewable energy, uh, in a word, no. What has OPEC done for the world other than control the majority of energy and become stupidly rich? My opinion, maybe NOT buy that next 24 karet gold plated Mercades or platinum covered bathtub and put the money into something that will continue to produce money. Here's a thought, maybe invest INTO renewable energy and make money from that! What are your thoughts?
They had a near stranglehold on world's energy sources until this point, and they used that to full advantage. Now, as things change, they can bloody well use the money they made for this long to 'aid' themselves.
That is the biggest joke ever. They are rolling in money, if they invested it into other things they could still make shed loads. That is the nature of business - change. Nothing lasts forever. If they invested in renewable resources then their business would carry on. They've got to be insane to request money.
I've always said during this whole era of instability in the persian gulf that if we could just have an affordable option to oil, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Iraq and Ethiopia. OPEC wants help... Screw em ... I'll send my money to the rotary phone industry before they get a thin dime.
As far as I'm concerned, any problems they face when the oil runs out are entirely their own for not diversifying their economies. Its not the governments are poor, many of the governments/ruling families in the Middle East have made billions off the oil trade with western oil companies, but the money has never really trickled down that far and these people have never thought that, rather than selling oil at a fat profit to western corporations (who employ foreigners) and keeping the money themselves, it might be worthwhile developing other industries. So we have a state now where many of the Middle Eastern nations have an economy that is based almost entirely around oil which these countries governments have done little about and when it runs out they're going to be screwed but want us to bail them out?
