Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, told the COP31 climate conference on Thursday that her country has a sovereign right to develop its oil industry, even as it recognises the importance of combating climate change.
“We reaffirm our sovereign right to strengthen our energy and oil industry as a driver of our national development,” Rodríguez told the summit in Antalya, Turkey. “It is possible to grow and protect the environment at the same time.”
Her remarks cut against the efforts of other leaders at the talks to convince governments to accelerate a shift away from carbon-emitting fossil fuels. Rodríguez argued that Venezuela’s forests acted as a “lung for the planet”, absorbing more carbon than the country emits. She did not address the impact that oil exported from Venezuela has on global emissions.
Her position aligns with the United States’ efforts to raise billions of dollars to increase oil output in Venezuela, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. President Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from formal climate cooperation last year after calling global warming a hoax, has said investing in Venezuela’s oil can bolster national security by increasing Western Hemisphere energy supplies.
Earlier on Thursday, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham made the opposite case, telling the conference that energy supply disruptions from the US-Israeli war with Iran and Russia’s war with Ukraine showed why countries must switch from fossil fuels to clean energy.
“It is now plain for everyone to see that if we depend on energy we do not control, then we leave ourselves exposed to prices we cannot control,” Burnham said. “The shift to clean energy is the only route to energy security.”
Thursday was the fifth day of the two-week COP31 conference, where representatives from nearly 200 countries are trying to agree a deal to improve progress in tackling climate change. A UN report last month found the world was on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit that countries agreed to pursue under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Note: this story is based on a single Reuters report; the quotes and claims above have not been independently verified by a second source.
Sources: Reuters, “Venezuela tells COP31 it has a sovereign right to pump more oil” (12 November 2026) — https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/venezuela-tells-cop31-it-has-sovereign-right-pump-more-oil-2026-11-12/
