Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 92% certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Rathi: Saudi Arabia pushed for UNFCCC consensus rule, blocking fossil fuel mentions

Akshat Rathi · How the Glasgow climate deal nearly collapsed · Nov 19, 2021 · at 14:30

Akshat Rathi, climate reporter, explains to Stephen Lacey why UN climate agreements omitted explicit mentions of fossil fuels for nearly three decades.

0:00 / 0:31exact quote · 31.5s

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“When the framework that created COP meetings called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was put together back in 1992, Saudi Arabia was among the countries that objected To make sure that the process is by consensus rather than by supermajority, which meant every country had to agree to a piece of text. That, of course, makes it really hard, and that's one reason why fossil fuels have not ended up being mentioned in any COP documents in the past two dozen years.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Saudi Arabia was among the nations that pushed for the 1992 UNFCCC to adopt a consensus-based voting model rather than a supermajority, keeping fossil fuels out of COP documents for 24 years.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Official UNFCCC negotiation records and diplomatic history confirm both parts of the claim. First, during the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee sessions (notably INC-11 in 1995 negotiating draft Rule 42 of the rules of procedure under the 1992 Convention), Saudi Arabia explicitly opposed supermajority voting options and pushed for consensus-only decision-making (Alternative B). Because Rule 42 was never formally adopted due to lack of consensus, COP decision-making defaulted to consensus rules. Second, formal cover and decision texts across COPs from COP1 (1995) through COP25 (2019) contained no explicit mention of 'fossil fuels' until the Glasgow Climate Pact at COP26 in November 2021, spanning over 24 years.

Earth Negotiations Bulletin reports on INC-11 (1995) document that Saudi Arabia, along with other oil-producing nations, explicitly endorsed Alternative B (strict consensus) and opposed supermajority voting rules for substantive decisions.
COP decision texts from COP1 (1995) through COP25 (2019) contained no explicit reference to 'fossil fuels' until COP26's Glasgow Climate Pact in November 2021 explicitly referenced phasedown of coal and phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies.

Checked against

[1] carbonbrief.org [2] climalia.eu [3] iisd.org [4] unfccc.int [5] unfccc.int [6] ejiltalk.org [7] carbonbrief.org [8] modeldiplomat.com

fossil fuels first mentioned COP decision text Glasgow Climate Pact 2021 mention of fossil fuels in COP decision texts prior to COP26 2021 Saudi Arabia consensus voting UNFCCC Rule 42 voting procedures INC 1992 UNFCCC Rule 42 consensus Saudi Arabia voting procedure INC

assessed as of 2026-09-02

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Mentioned

COP Saudi Arabia United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

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