DURBAN, South Africa -- Qatar may be one of the world's top oil-producing nations, but that should not define the country's commitment to fighting global warming as it prepares to host the next major U.N. climate conference, the country's lead negotiator said yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the major annual U.N. climate negotiations, Ali Hamed Abdulla Ali Al-Mulla, manager of corporate environment and sustainable development for Qatar Petroleum -- and the country's point-man at international climate talks -- said Qatar and other oil producers get a bad rap from environmentalists and are simply working to protect their national economies.

Skyline of Doha, the capital of Qatar. Photo courtesy of Qatar Tourism Authority.

In hosting the 18th annual U.N. climate conference commonly known as COP 18, Al-Mulla said he expects to show the world a new and greener face of Qatar. At the same time, he said Qatar will not contribute to the Green Climate Fund for developing countries. And, he made no apologies for the avenues Qatar hopes to champion as ways to reduce emissions -- the sale of natural gas and deployment of carbon capture and storage technology -- which environmentalists handily reject.

"We have this resource, and it is a God-given resource," Al-Mulla said of fossil fuels. Located on the Persian Gulf, he said, "it is very hard for us to diversify our economy.

"If we take the pros and cons, what we are producing in Qatar, natural gas, it is sold in Europe, to the United States, to Asia ... and these countries are using the natural gas that is produced in Qatar to reduce the emissions."

COP 18 will not be the first U.N. climate conference to be held in the Middle East -- in 2001 nations met in Marrakesh, Morocco -- but it will be the first in the Persian Gulf. Al-Mulla said he sees the summit as a badly needed opportunity for fossil fuel producing nations to shine.

"We need to show that not all oil-producing countries are bad," he said. "We want to get rid of the stereotype that we are polluters, or we are careless of the environment and of the climate change. We'd like others to accept us."

Two-year fight to win a tough assignment

That's a tough mission. While Qatar has generally been a quiet player at the U.N. talks (Asked what his country has strongly advocated here, al-Mulla paused and said, "I cannot say. We study other countries' positions."), it is viewed as being in the shadow of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi delegation is widely criticized by environmental activists here for undermining progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It also has claimed the right to compensation for agreeing to reduce its crude extraction.

Al-Mulla said concerns that the Qatar COP will be dominated by Saudi views are unfounded, saying, "We are a sovereign country. We have our own views."

Qatar won a bid to host COP 18 after a fierce two-year lobbying battle against South Korea, a country that when it comes to climate change could not be more different than the oil-rich state.

South Korea has made "green growth" a cornerstone of its national policy, and has vowed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent below business as usual growth by the decade's end.

Qatar by contrast is the world's largest per-capita emitter of greenhouse gases and has made no such pledge. Asked about its polluter status, al-Mulla said, "being tagged as the highest per-capita emitter ... it is unfortunate that Qatar has a small population."

South Korea has pledged to contribute to the Green Climate Fund for vulnerable countries, despite the fact that as not technically a developed nation by the rules of the U.N. climate regime, it is not required to do so.

Asked yesterday if Qatar, with one of the world's highest GDPs per capita will similarly contribute, al-Mulla cast doubt on the Korean pledge and said his country will not give.

Raising the climate change issue in the Middle East

"We give a lot of money outside the context of climate change, but within the context of climate change we have to play by the rules," he said. "We are not supposed to contribute because we are not an Annex I country. We abide by the rules." As for Korea's pledge, he said, "show me."

Yet al-Mulla also insisted that Qatar wants COP 18 for substantive reasons, and not just to showcase Doha as a major player on the international stage. He said he hopes one outcome of the conference is that it raises the profile of both the impacts of climate change and solutions throughout the Middle East.

"We need to propagate the climate change issues within the local communities in the Middle East," al-Mulla said. "Even Saudi Arabia should promote these kinds of climate change issues to the local people. For some in the Middle East, maybe climate change is not their main interest, but I think if we can send a message and that message reaches one single person, a young person in a university somewhere, and that person becomes a lead negotiator in his country ... that would be a plus."

Al-Mulla side-stepped questions about Qatar's hope for the outcome of the Durban talks -- and specifically the question of developing a future legally binding agreement that reins in all major emitters. As host of the next conference, al-Mulla said, he doesn't want to compromise the country's impartiality.

"I don't want to send the wrong message before COP 18. Right now we are taking a low profile so we don't want to take sides. We want to play fair with everybody, and we will be very transparent and accommodating. "I think we will be a good moderator where we bring all the views together," al-Mulla said. "We would like to be a key player."