Former US vice president Al Gore said it was "literally insane" that oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia could block global action against climate change, calling for sweeping reforms to UN negotiations.
Speaking to AFP on the sidelines of the COP31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, Gore said UN climate talks needed to replace the consensus-based decision-making system with a supermajority model.
Saudi Arabia and other fossil fuel-producing countries, including Russia and India, have been among the nations accused of using their de facto veto power to impede tougher language on oil, gas and coal in UN climate negotiations.
"There's growing support for moving away from a so-called consensus model," Gore said Thursday in Antalya.
"The idea that one individual country like Saudi Arabia can block anything the entire world wants to do is literally insane. We are facing the most serious threat to the future of humanity that we have ever faced," the climate advocate said.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate also accused Saudi Arabia of trying to "sabotage" the work of the UN's climate science panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The Saudi government did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
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