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iN Focus: cop21

The IMF sees Venezuela’s economy contractng 7% in 2015 as price
infaton rises 96.8%.
“Venezuela sees the global climate regime as a threat to its
natonal interests,” Guy Edwards at Brown University’s Climate and
Development Lab told RTCC.
Beyond big hydropower it has litle intenton to shif to cleaner forms
of energy or stem oil exports which fuels its economy, he added.
Frozen out of capital markets, Venezuela has snapped up a reported
$56 billion of Chinese investment since 2005. For China, the draw is
not bolivars – which have slid to 170 bolivars to the dollar from 10 in
2012 – but energy security, with payment in oil.
Decarbonisaton
There are mountng calls for a long term goal to decarbonise the
global economy this century, in line with the 2C warming goal –
efectvely spelling an end to fossil fuel use. USGS map of heavy oil resources in the Orinoco. Blue: Orinoco Oil Belt
Assessment Unit. Red: East Venezuela Basic Province.
But Salerno bated away the issue, citng Venezuela’s vast rainforests Photo: © Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
that suck up carbon dioxide.
These carbon sinks together with “low” oil consumpton
“decarbonised” Venezuela, according to Salerno: its 0.5% share of
global emissions is “practcally insignifcant”.
Shipments to the top markets US and China for its oil absolved it of
responsibility for the combuston of the dirty fuels, she said.

Cerro Autana in the Venezuelan Amazon. The country possesses 54 million hectares of primary rainforest. Photo: © Fernando Flores l www.fickr.com

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