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OPEC Secretary General tells COP29 oil is a gift from God

OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais on Wednesday informed the COP29 climate top in Baku that petroleum and gas were a gift from God, and that international warming talks should concentrate on cutting emissions not selecting energy sources.

His words echoed those of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who utilized his opening address to the top to hit back at Western critics of his nation's oil and gas industry, and also explained those resources as a present from God.

They are undoubtedly a present of God, Al Ghais, a veteran Kuwaiti oil executive, said in a speech at the conference.

They affect how we produce and bundle and transport food and how we carry out medical research study, manufacture, distribute, medical materials. I could go on forever.

He said that world federal governments, which accepted limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels at the 2015 summit in Paris, might attain their climate targets without avoiding petroleum.

The focus of the Paris Arrangement is minimizing emissions, not selecting energy sources, he stated.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries

(source: Reuters)