Key facts
- Rodriguez told COP31 that Venezuela reaffirms its sovereign right to strengthen its energy and oil industry as a driver of national development.
- Rodriguez said Venezuela's forests act as a lung for the planet, absorbing more carbon than the country emits.
- Rodriguez did not address the impact of oil exported from Venezuela on global emissions, Reuters reported.
- Burnham said supply disruptions from the US-Israeli war with Iran and Russia's war with Ukraine showed the need to switch to clean energy.
- COP31 is in its fifth day of a two-week conference with representatives from nearly 200 countries seeking a deal on climate progress.
Venezuela's Acting President Delcy Rodriguez told the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkey, on November 12, 2026 that the country has the sovereign right to develop its oil industry, even as it recognizes the importance of combating climate change. Her remarks conflict with efforts by other conference leaders to push governments to speed a shift away from fossil fuels, Reuters reported.
Rodriguez said: "We reaffirm our sovereign right to strengthen our energy and oil industry as a driver of our national development." She added: "It is possible to grow and protect the environment at the same time." She said Venezuela's forests act as a "lung for the planet," absorbing more carbon than the country emits, and did not address the impact of oil exported from the country on global emissions.
Her position aligns with US efforts to raise billions of dollars to increase oil output in Venezuela, an OPEC member. 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 November 12, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the conference that energy supply disruptions from the US-Israeli war with Iran and Russia's war with Ukraine showed the need for countries to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy. He said: "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." He added: "The shift to clean energy is the only route to energy security."
November 12 is the fifth day of the two-week COP31 conference, where representatives from nearly 200 countries are trying to agree a deal to improve progress on tackling climate change. A UN report last month found the world was on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit countries agreed to pursue under the 2015 Paris Agreement.