Saudi Arabia presents its vision for an environmentally friendly future during the United Nations Climate Summit “COP 27” in Egypt. The vision includes hydrogen-powered cars, vehicles that capture exhaust pollutants, a computer “mouse” made of recycled plastic ocean waste, and planting hundreds of millions of trees in the desert.
But what this Saudi wing did not highlight is the fossil fuels that cause global warming, which Saudi Arabia continues to pump into global markets, according to the Associated Press report.
Fossil fuel emissions were the main reason delegates from nearly 200 countries gathered at the annual two-week conference to negotiate how and how quickly to reduce pollution.
At the conference, Saudi Arabia presented itself as a leader in green energy and environmentally friendly practices, with glamorous pavilions, eye-catching displays and optimistic assessments of technologies such as carbon capture that remove carbon dioxide from the air, but are expensive and might take years to deploy on a large scale.
“We have very ambitious goals and objectives. We want to set an example for the world in terms of what can be done,” Saudi envoy for climate affairs Adel Al-Jubeir said at the two-day “Saudi Green Initiative” forum on the sidelines of the COP27 conference.
This effort is part of the efforts of Saudi Arabia, which has one of the largest oil reserves in the world and a key member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), to prove the Kingdom’s desire to switch to renewable energy, while maintaining its role as the world’s largest exporter of crude oil.
But this vision is strongly opposed by climate scientists and environmental experts, who assert that Saudi Arabia and other countries that possess large oil reserves seek to distract the world from continuing their work.
And the Saudi Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, announced a range of new environmentally friendly projects or the development of existing projects, ranging from pledges to plant trees to new solar energy projects.
The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had launched his “Saudi Green” initiative at the “COP 26” conference last year in Glasgow, Scotland, with the aim of reaching zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2060, which he changed to 2050 at the beginning of this year’s meeting.
However, energy exports constitute the mainstay of the Saudi economy, which generates $150 billion in annual revenues, despite efforts to diversify sources of income with the acceleration of the global shift away from dependence on fossil fuels.
At the Saudi pavilion of COP27, officials and invited speakers from renewable energy companies held topics such as clean hydrogen, greening the desert, and a futuristic desert city project called NEOM.
The CEO of Saudi state-owned oil giant Aramco, Amin Nasser, said that the world needs more investment in oil and gas, not less, a message that contradicts the prevailing sentiment among many country delegations, climate experts and activists present at COP27. .
“I am worried regarding the lack of investment in oil and gas in particular,” Nasser said, speaking of recurring themes.
Saudi Arabia has resisted calls to phase out fossil fuels urgently, warning that an early shift might lead to higher prices and fuel shortages.
In addition, Al-Nasser said, “Yes, there are good investments that are taking place in alternatives” such as wind and solar energy, adding that the amount of money spent on oil production capacity decreased to 400 billion dollars annually from 700 billion dollars in 2014.
“This is not enough to meet global demand in the medium and long term,” he added.
An Aramco spokesman said Nasser was not available for an interview.
Among the Saudi announcements were plans to create a regional center to “promote emissions reductions” and another to host a regional climate week before the COP28 meeting next year.
There is also a plan to build 13 renewable energy projects with a total generating capacity of 11.4 gigawatts, although experts said this is a step backwards from figures announced in previous years.
Once operational, the new energy projects will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by regarding 20 million tons annually.
Saudi Aramco plans to build the largest carbon capture and storage center in the world, which will store up to 9 million tons of carbon dioxide when it is operational in 2027.
And all of this is part of the kingdom’s pledge to reduce emissions by 278 million tons annually by 2030.
And that amount is still small compared to the roughly 10 billion metric tons of carbon emitted globally into the air annually.
Saudi Arabia has also raised its goal of planting trees to 600 million trees by 2030, including mangroves, up from its initial target of 450 million trees.
However, climate experts are not convinced.
“Saudi Arabia would be better off focusing on reducing emissions rather than relying on carbon capture and storage and questionable reductions such as tree planting, which would allow it to Simply by continuing to increase emissions from burning fossil fuels.”
“To keep emissions on a 1.5°C path, all governments must focus on reducing fossil fuel emissions, not offsetting them,” she added.
The Climate Action Tracker, run by the Institute and its partners, rates Saudi Arabia’s bid as “extremely inadequate”.
The program analyzes countries’ climate goals and policies once morest the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement which ideally limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F).
The Saudi authorities are promoting what they call a “circular carbon economy” to reduce emissions from oil and gas operations, but the program says that this “addresses only a small part of related emissions in Saudi Arabia and globally, as most emissions related to oil and gas come from fuel combustion rather than extraction and processing”.
Oil and gas assets in Saudi Arabia emit 900 million tons of emissions annually, according to an inventory of the most important known sources of greenhouse gas emissions prepared by the Climate Trace coalition and released at COP27.
There is also a greenhouse gas credit and offset plan next year, with few details. Carbon credits, which allow countries and companies to pay to reduce their carbon footprints, for example by planting trees, have become increasingly controversial, with critics saying they act as a license for polluters to keep polluting.
At least during the year’s talks in Glasgow, Saudi Arabia has faced accusations that its negotiators are working to block climate measures that might threaten oil demand, an accusation the kingdom’s energy minister called a lie.
As negotiations for the final agreement approach in the second and final week of COP27, watchdog groups have warned of the influence of the so-called oil sector and industry lobbyists. They counted 636 people associated with fossil fuel companies on the provisional list of participants for the meeting, more than a quarter more than last year’s tally.
“Saudis may come to COP27 in a green hat and extol the virtues of tree planting, but this is a case in point that continues to benefit greatly from the destructive practices that caused the climate crisis,” said Alice Harrison, an activist with Global Witness – one of the groups that did the tally. …any exhibitions, talks or offers to the contrary are greenwashing.”