Al Gore criticizes Saudi ‘veto’ power and calls for reforms in negotiations

O former U.S. Vice President Al Gore believes it is “literally insane” that oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia can block global actions on climate change and called for deep reforms in UN climate negotiations.

Speaking in the margins of the COP31 climate conference, the main UN climate conference, which is taking place in Antalia, Turkey, until 20 November, Gore argued that discussions should no longer be based on consensus, but rather on a “supermajority” model.

Saudi Arabia and other fossil fuel producing countries, including Russia and India, are often accused of using their veto power ‘de facto’ to prevent the adoption of a more rigorous language on oil, coal and gas in climate negotiations.

“ We are hearing more and more voices defending the abandonment of the so-called consensus model”, Gore said.

“ The idea that a country like Saudi Arabia can block any initiative from the rest of the world is literally insane. We are facing the most serious threat to the future of humanity we have ever known,” he stressed.

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize also accused Saudi Arabia of “trying to sabotage” the work of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The Saudi Government has not yet commented on the charges.

Almost 200 countries agreed for the first time in 2023 at COP28 in Dubai to begin the transition to stop using fossil fuels.

The compromise has been made hard, with the main oil producing countries offering strong resistance.

The United States, an important actor in the previous COP negotiations, has also ceased to participate in the UN climate negotiations since the return of President Donald Trump to power in 2025.

“ The change of approach adopted by Donald Trump is encouraging the world’s main polluters,” Al Gore lamented.

COP30, held in Brazil last year, ended without any explicit mention of fossil fuels in the final agreement, which has been pointed out to Saudi Arabia, Russia and India.

In Antália, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy and Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodríguez defended, in their speeches, the right of their countries to develop their oil industries.

In Turkey, the host country has tried to move forward with an initiative to accelerate the electrification of transport, buildings and industry, with the aim of increasing the share of electricity in global energy consumption to 35% by 2035.

However, it has not yet been specified how electricity should be generated, leaving open the possibility of using fossil fuels.

Al Gore believes that the Turkish initiative must be “accompanied with the requirement to use as much clean energy as possible to achieve the goal”.

The former U.S. Vice President himself participates in a project called Climate TRACE, which uses satellite images and artificial intelligence to track greenhouse gas emissions.

In COP31, it presented a new analysis showing that the implementation of Turkey's electrification target, if accompanied by the ecologization of the power grid, could double the reduction of emissions.

Despite the absence of the US Government in COP31 and the abandonment of various climate policies by the Trump administration, Al Gore remains optimistic after the heavy defeat of the Republican Party in the mid-term elections on November 3.

“ Several measures will be so popular among the general public that, after the elections, [Trump] will be under intense pressure to accept some,” he said, pointing out as an example the replacement of incentives in taxes for those buying electric cars.

A delegation from the U.S. Congress composed of Democrats is expected to participate in COP31 this weekend, but Al Gore devalues the possible influence in the negotiations, given the absence of an official delegation from the U.S. Government.

This absence allows, however and according to Al Gore, to gain advantage: the Trump administration is not in Antalia “to interfere directly in the negotiations” and thus try to block climate actions.