Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi led the Saudi delegation to the Special Meeting on Climate Changes which was held at the General Assembly of United Nations in New York. The speeches, by a number of heads of state and relevant ministers, focused on the urgent desire for dealing with this phenomenon in a manner that ensures the provision of appropriate solutions while maintaining the continued growth of the global economy. In a key speech as representative of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Al-Naimi conveyed the greetings of Saudi leadership and government and their welcome of this issue. Al-Naimi said // Saudi government looks forward to start negotiations on the obligations of the second period of the Kyoto Protocol starting next year 2008 , and we are ready for an international agreement in this area . He stressed that the agreement should be based on the international principles and on the obligations of "Rio Declaration", in addition to the principles set forth in the Framework of agreement on the Climate Change. At the top of these principles, the principle of the common but differentiate responsibility between developed and developing countries, the principle of non assume any greater burden to a country than its fair share and in addition to the principle of non-bias against specific goods in the framework of international trade when adopting policies for addressing climate change. The Minister expressed Saudi Arabia's concern to the method of selective policies which was adopted by some of the industrialized nations to confront climate change. He added//those industrialized nations are imposing more high taxes which are already higher than petroleum products at the same time providing direct and indirect aid for the industries of coal and nuclear energy which are the most polluting sources of climate and the global environment, in addition to its intervention to influence the relative prices of energy sources. This affects growth rates in the world for demanding oil in the coming period and contributes to a negative impact on the march of development in our country, and puts more burden on our fair share in the efforts to face climate change.
