Iran can cut as much as four times more carbon emissions if the economic sanctions against it are lifted, its chief negotiator to UN climate talks told Bloomberg.

The world’s 11th biggest greenhouse gas emitter aims to submit its INDC to the UN next month, but its target will depend on whether the EU and the United States lift the economic sanctions against it as planned.

“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. The other side of the coin that we are favourably looking at would certainly be making three to four times the effect once the sanctions are lifted,” chief negotiator Majid Shafie-Pour said.

US President Barack Obama on Oct. 18 ordered his administration to take steps to lift the long-standing sanctions against Iran, and the EU adopted its framework to end its trade restrictions on the same day.

Sanctions against Iran are expected to be removed in late December or early January, once the International Atomic Energy Agency certifies that the country has met its commitments in the deal struck with six major powers in Vienna in July.

Iran emits around 650 million tonnes of CO2e annually, and expects that number to rise to 1.3-1.6 billion by 2030 under a business-as-usual scenario.

In Feb. 2014, an official at Iran’s Fuel Conservation Organization (IFCO) told oil ministry news service Shana that it plans to set up an emissions trading scheme to help drive domestic emission cuts.

However, the official provided no details on when the scheme might be launched or what it might look like, and Iranian officials have not made similar statements since.

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