LONDON: Climate change is a key concern for Saudi Arabia and the country is eager to set the standards in global efforts to combat the issue, the Kingdom’s climate envoy said on Wednesday.
“We are a responsible actor in the global community and we don’t want to follow the standards, we want to set the standards for how countries should conduct themselves and what responsibilities they take on and what objectives they set, and what programs and initiatives they put in place domestically, regionally and internationally to help meet the challenge of climate change,” Adel Al-Jubeir said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The Kingdom has allocated tremendous resources, time and effort to tackling climate change, he added, including more than $186 billion invested in the Saudi Green Initiative alone.
“We’re also working with small island nations, we’re working with developing countries to help them adopt a circular carbon economy approach so they can deal with the issue of climate change,” he said.
“We are the world’s largest exporter of oil and we are very proud of it. And oil will continue to be a major source of energy for the world. But as the world’s largest exporter of oil, we also want to be a leader in dealing with renewable energy, and in dealing with and confronting the issue of climate change.”
The Kingdom’s natural resources include large deposits of uranium and there is a desire to take economic advantage of them, Al-Jubeir said.
“We have no problem in terms of international safeguards and we have conversations with the International Atomic Energy Agency about this issue; we can satisfy whatever requirements they have,” he added.
“As a country that has large resources, and potentially tremendously large resources of uranium, we are not going to let people pick up the dirt and refine it and do everything value-added there, and we end up with five cents out of 100 cents. We want the value added in Saudi Arabia, we want the jobs in Saudi Arabia, we want the associated industries in Saudi Arabia. That’s a very reasonable request. We are merchants and we want the profits in Saudi Arabia.”
Saudi Arabia needs nuclear energy, Al-Jubeir said, and will utilize it in a way that satisfies the requirements of the IAEA.
“We see ourselves as an energy exporter to the world,” he added. “We want to be able to sell you the nuclear energy that you can then plug in and get energy out of it. We want to sell you oil and we want to sell you gas, we want to sell you green energy, renewable energy, we want to sell you the whole litany of energy products.”
Solar energy is also a priority for the Kingdom, Al-Jubeir said, and this is reflected by its substantial investments in the technology.
“We have huge ambitions with regards to solar plants,” he added. “And … NEOM and other major Saudi mega projects are getting their energy from solar energy.”
