Saudi Arabia to give 300 million for climate research (1st Lead)

Nov 17, 2007, 19:11 GMT

Riyadh - Saudi Arabia will allocate a grant of 300 million dollars 'as a seed' for research on climate change, environment and energy resources, King Abdullah Abdel-Aziz said Saturday at the opening session of the third-ever Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) summit.

'I hope that (oil) producing and consuming countries will engage in a similar programme, an endeavour that guarantees the wellbeing of the environment,' said the Saudi monarch in his opening speech.

'Protecting the planet' and the world's ecosystems was a benchmark on the summit's agenda where the OPEC members have vowed to 'recognize the need to ensure that providing reliable energy supplies is done in an environmentally conscious manner.'

The heads of state of the 13-member OPEC convened in Riyadh for a summit overshadowed by the falling value of the US dollar, rising oil prices and the effect on poorer nations despite its focus on such issues as energy supplies, climate change and fighting global warming - matters of less impact to concerns on oil prices and quotas, according to observers.

This was not to say that rising prices of oil had no effect on the meeting's mood. In his speech, Abdullah seemed compelled to defend the soaring prices hovering around the 100 dollar-a-barrel mark, by saying inflation had lessened the value of the dollar over the years.

'The real current price of oil - if we bear in mind the inflation rate - has not even reached its equivalent in the 1980s,' said the king.

In common with the other OPEC leaders, Abdullah described the oil- exporting organisation's interests as 'fair' - the same word used and repeated by President Hugo Chavez to brand the policy of OPEC.

This was seen as the leaders subtly responding to criticism levelled at OPEC for its reluctance to rebalance an unstable oil market against the benefit of low-income oil-importing states.

OPEC has showed unwillingness to exercise control over the climbing prices by increasing output. Earlier the organization said that increasing supply will have little impact on this upward movement.

In his extended defence on Saturday, Abdullah reiterated what Suleiman al-Harbash, head of the OPEC Fund for International Development, told reporters ahead of the summit.

Al-Harbash had said that during the past years, the fund had allocated 30 billion Saudi Riyals (eight billion dollars) to help development in poor countries - a statement that was seen by observers as an attempt to distance OPEC from the harmful effect of the soaring oil prices on poor countries.

'We have founded a treasury for development whose investments reach more than 120 countries worldwide - aside from aid,' said Abdullah. 'Facts prove that OPEC always behaves against a backdrop of fairness and wisdom.'

Similarly, when al-Harbash was asked by reporters hours before the summit opening session if the organization either monopolizes oil wealth or uses the needs of other countries 'to get rich,' he immediately said that people have 'a distorted picture' of OPEC.

'OPEC invests in developing and poor countries across the world,' he said. 'The oil-producing countries are happy to extract natural wealth from the depths of the earth in order to create wealth above the land, build civilizations and (cause) constant development.'

OPEC, made up of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, Venezuela, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, Algeria and Indonesia, produces 40 per cent of the world's oil and owns three-quarters of the world's oil reserves.