CANCUN, Mexico: Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said negotiators at the UN global climate talks should agree to include ways to encourage carbon capture and storage in the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. The minister of the world's top oil exporter is attending the climate talks in the Caribbean resort before heading to a meeting of OPEC in Quito, Ecuador that begins Saturday. Al-Naimi also said the talks, set to end on Friday, should not produce an accord that works against traditional energy sources. “We expect the outcome to discourage any protectionist trade policies that are a bias against ... petroleum products,” he told the plenary session of the global talks. The UN talks are split about whether to allow carbon capture and storage, for instance from coal-fired power plants and oil refineries, to qualify for carbon credits under the CDM. The CDM would allow companies from rich nations to invest in curbing greenhouse gas emissions in projects in developing nations, such as hydropower in Honduras or solar power in Morocco, and then claim credits back home for averted emissions. Oil producers and some developed nations favor allowing carbon capture and storage to qualify but opponents say that it would be a way of effectively subsidizing the oil industry. “The money should be invested in renewable energies, not in dirty technologies,” said Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace. He said that allowing carbon storage to qualify for the CDM would raise chances that the nuclear power industry would also lobby for credits under the CDM. Brazil is among nations strongly opposed to the carbon capture approach. “The technology is not proven,” Luis Figueiredo Machado, chief negotiator for Brazil, told Reuters. “It needs more research.” Oil prices surge Oil prices rose slightly Thursday as US jobless claims dropped and Japan said its economy grew more than expected in the third quarter. Benchmark oil for January delivery added 9 cents to settle at $88.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude rose 22 cents to settle at $90.99 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
