Saudi Arabia, of all places: the world’s largest exporter of crude oil wants to become climate neutral. The Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said at the weekend that his country did not want to produce any additional greenhouse gases “by 2060”. This should be possible through the “approach of a circular economy for carbon”. The timing was of course coordinated with the world climate summit in Glasgow, which starts on October 31st.
Because until now, Saudi Arabia has not been known as a model student, but as a brake on climate protection. According to the UN, more than 130 countries have set themselves the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Germany wants to be climate neutral by 2045, Austria by 2040. The change from Saul to Paul is no coincidence: The state in the Middle East is under pressure because investors are threatening to turn away from the oil company Saudi Aramco, which is one of the most important, because of the high climate footprint The desert state’s sources of income count.
Billions of new trees
Crown Prince Mohammed also announced “initiatives in the energy sector” which should reduce CO2 emissions by 278 million tons annually by 2030. With this, Saudi Arabia is “doubling” its contribution to climate protection. The country is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world.
It was only in March that the Crown Prince presented a climate protection plan which, among other things, provides for the planting of billions of trees in the coming decades. The oil country wants to reduce its emissions by generating half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, he said at the time.
In his recent speech, the Crown Prince stated that more than 450 million trees will be planted and eight million hectares of damaged land will be restored in the first phase. Saudi Arabia also said it would designate new “protected areas”. With this move, the proportion of protected areas in the kingdom increases to more than 20 percent of its total area, said Bin Salman, adding that the first phase of the climate protection initiative will cost more than 700 billion riyals (160 billion euros).
The Crown Prince also announced that his country would join an EU and US initiative to reduce methane emissions. The participating countries promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2020 levels. In the meantime, more than 30 countries have declared their support for this.
