By Shadia Nasralla and Kate Abnett
GLASGOW (Reuters) – A fledgling international alliance to halt new oil and gas drilling added four members on Thursday during the UN climate conference in Scotland, but did not get the support of any major fossil fuel producers or the conference host Britain.
The absence of widespread backing reflects the difficulty of imposing blanket policies to end production of fossil fuels even as countries agree that emissions from burning them must be greatly reduced.
France, Greenland, Ireland and Sweden joined the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, formed by Denmark and Costa Rica earlier this year, pledging to stop handing out drilling permits and eventually ban oil and gas production in their territories.
None of the countries has substantial production.
But BOGA, which describes itself as a group of “first movers” trying to ratchet up pressure to cut off fossil fuel supply, said it hoped the additions to its alliance would open the door to other nations to join.
“It is our ambition that this will be the beginning of the end of oil and gas,” Danish climate minister Dan Jorgensen told Reuters. “We hope that this will inspire others.”
BOGA does not ban activities such as oil refining, or consumption of oil and gas products, focusing only on upstream production.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett and Shadia Nasralla, additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; editing by Barbara Lewis)
