Iran could as much as quadruple its efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions if economic sanctions imposed by USA, the United Nations and European Union are ended, the country’s lead envoy at UN climate negotiations said.
The country intends to submit by the middle of November a “very well-prepared” pledge on what actions it is prepared to take to limit greenhouse gases, Majid Shafipour, Iran’s delegation chief at a UN climate meeting in Bonn, said in an interview, Bloomberg reported.
“We would really have to have at least two different plans—one with the existing technology available to ourselves, the existing level of investment and financial resources and the capacity under the unjustifiable sanction regime,” Shafipour said.
“The other side of the coin that we are favorably looking at would certainly be making three to four times the effect once the sanctions are lifted.”
Iran’s actions to fight climate change matter because it is the biggest greenhouse gas polluter and has not yet detailed the efforts it is prepared to make as part of a new deal on global warming.
Envoys from more than 190 nations are meeting in Bonn this week to prepare the deal that leaders are expected to sign at a summit in Paris in December.
Iran’s emissions account for about 1.5% of the global total, according to World Resources Institute data, making it the planet’s 11th biggest emitter.
The official declined to put a precise number on the carbon reductions achievable by Iran, saying the discussion is still ongoing. Iran projects its emissions will be 2-2.5 times greater in 2030 than in 2010 under a business-as-usual development scenario.
“The reductions would be from that baseline,” he said.
Shafipour said Iran, which has the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves, needs to carry out a “radical renovation” of its energy sector to reduce emissions.
“Iran’ plan is to focus first on energy efficiency measures, then to extend the use of less carbon-intensive fossil fuels, primarily natural gas, and then move toward renewables,” he said.
The nation’s pledge will also detail its financial and technological needs to be able to limit its pollution, as well as measures the country will need to take to adapt to the effects of climate change.
