France wants to “encourage” Saudi Arabia to review its ecological ambitions to achieve carbon neutrality more quickly, the French Minister for Energy Transition told AFP during a visit to the powerful Gulf oil monarchy.
France encourages Saudi Arabia to review its climate trajectory at COP28
Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading crude oil exporter, is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2060, while neighboring United Arab Emirates, another major supplier of black gold, is hosting the UN climate conference, COP28, at the end of the year.
“This COP28 will be the time to take stock of our respective trajectories,” said French Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher on Saturday in an interview with AFP in Riyadh.
France, which is currently working on an upward revision of its ambitions, “urges all countries, and Saudi Arabia in particular, to also review their trajectory”, she added. According to the Minister, emission reduction targets are more credible when they are “set within a short timeframe of 2030-2035, and therefore do not push the issue back to 2050”.
Saudi Arabia pledged in 2021 to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2060 at the latest. Saudi oil giant Aramco, the kingdom’s main source of revenue, is aiming for “zero net operational emissions” by 2050, a target that applies to emissions directly produced by the group’s industrial sites. Agnès Pannier-Runacher left Saudi Arabia on Sunday after meetings with French and Saudi officials and businessmen.
Environmentalists skeptical of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States
The Minister felt that Riyadh could play “a leading role” at COP28, at a time when environmentalists are highly skeptical of the environmental ambitions of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries whose economies are heavily dependent on hydrocarbon exports. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are injecting billions of euros into green energy, while calling for greater investment in fossil fuels to meet growing global demand.
These Gulf countries claim that CO2 capture, thanks to technologies that are still in their infancy and very costly, will enable them to achieve carbon neutrality. Agnès Pannier-Runacher also declared that France had entered the “competition” underway with other countries to participate in the “high-power nuclear reactor project” in Saudi Arabia. Paris is keen to “demonstrate the qualities of the French nuclear industry to meet Saudi Arabia’s expectations”, she said.
