Iran could as much as quadruple its efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions if economic sanctions imposed by the US, UN and EU are ended.

These were the words of Majid Shafie-Pour, Iran’s delegation chief at a UN climate meeting in Bonn, in an interview with Bloomberg.

He revealed further that Iran intends to submit by the middle of November a “very well-prepared” pledge on what actions it’s prepared to take to limit greenhouse gases.

“We would really have to have at least two different plans — one with the existing technology available to ourselves, the existing level of investment and financial resources and the capacity under the unjustifiable sanction regime,” Shafie-Pour added. “The other side of the coin that we are favorably looking at would certainly be making three to four times the effect once the sanctions are lifted.”

According to Press TV,  Iran’s greenhouse emissions account for about 1.5% of the global total, citing the World Resources Institute.

This was, in part, caused by the sanctions because the country had to rely on its own petrochemical industries to produce gasoline to fuel Iranian vehicle usage.

Shafie-Pour also said that Iran will formally submit the promise to the UN before President Hassan Rouhani visits France in the second half of November.

Shafie-Pour himself was in Bonn along with representatives from more than 190 nations for a meeting this week to hammer out a deal for signing at a summit of world leaders in Paris slotted for December.

Iran’s energy sector will need a “radical renovation” to reduce emissions when the sanctions are lifted, he elaborated, adding that the “plan is to focus first on energy efficiency measures, then to extend the use of less carbon-intensive fossil fuels, primarily natural gas, and then move toward renewable”.