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Cheap cars, supersonic jets and floating power plants: Undercover in Saudi Arabia’s secretive program to keep the world burning oil – Centre for Climate Reporting [1]
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Date: 2023-11-27 18:58:39+00:00
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is overseeing a sweeping global investment program designed to counteract the world’s efforts to reduce demand for oil and tackle climate change, according to an undercover investigation by the Centre for Climate Reporting.
The program, which is chaired by the Crown Prince and his energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, aims to boost oil consumption across Asia and Africa, with the ultimate goal of protecting Saudi oil revenues from efforts to phase out fossil fuels.
Saudi Arabia publicly claims to support the Paris climate change agreement, which aims to limit global temperature increases to 1.5C or 2C – requiring an almost total transformation of the way in which the world produces and consumes energy. The Crown Prince, also known as MBS, has said that the Kingdom needs to go “further and faster” in tackling climate change.
But an undercover investigation by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) reveals how, in private, the Kingdom is seeking to ensure that emerging economies across Africa and Asia become vastly more dependent on oil, not less.
The Oil Demand Sustainability Program (OSP) is a vast government program with dozens of projects aimed at embedding a high-carbon, fossil fuel-dependent development model in countries across Africa and Asia. This includes meticulously researched plans to drive a major increase in gasoline and diesel-fuelled vehicles and boost jet fuel sales via increased air travel.
“There’s a fundamental policy aim, which is to burn and exploit all Saudi’s oil reserves until the last drop”
It brings together the most powerful arms of the Saudi state, including the $700 billion Saudi Public Investment Fund; the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco; petrochemicals giant, Sabic; and the Kingdom’s most important ministries – all under the auspices of the Crown Prince’s supreme committee of hydrocarbon affairs.
When asked by an undercover reporter whether the aim of the program is to artificially stimulate oil demand to counter global efforts to reduce oil consumption and tackle climate change, a Saudi official responded: “Yes… it is one of the main objectives that we are trying to accomplish.”
Following a six-month investigation, the Centre for Climate Reporting can – for the first time – reveal MBS’ secret plans to keep the world hooked on oil, even as the devastating impacts of global warming are beginning to bite.
The investigation, based on secret recordings, documents provided by Saudi officials to undercover reporters, and an analysis of regulatory filings, reveals:
A sophisticated strategy to deploy fleets of petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles across Asia and Africa so that Saudi Arabia can “capture the increasing gasoline/diesel demand.”
Plans to collaborate with an undisclosed global auto manufacturer to develop and produce a cheap car that can be sold in emerging markets to give “an oil uplift for the kingdom.”
Plans to fast-track commercial supersonic air travel, explicitly because it consumes three times more jet fuel than normal aircraft.
A plan to lobby against government subsidies for electric vehicles in countries around the world.
Plans to encourage the use of toxic heavy fuel oil to generate power in Africa and South Asia.
Responding to the investigation, Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a non-governmental organisation based in Nairobi focused on climate change, told CCR: “The Saudi government is like a drug dealer trying to get Africa hooked on its harmful product. The rest of the world is cleaning up its act and weaning itself off dirty and polluting fossil fuels and Saudi Arabia is getting desperate for more customers and is turning its sights on Africa.”
“It’s like the tobacco companies that knew the addictive and lethal nature of cigarettes yet continued to get millions of teenagers hooked on them,” Adow said, “it’s repulsive”.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, executive director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), a civil society organisation headquartered in Lagos, told CCR that Africa needs “infrastructure that will reduce carbon emissions and not exacerbate the climate crisis.”
“This Saudi model is a Greek gift that will further sink Africa into climate catastrophe,” Oluwafemi said.
The Saudi Arabia energy ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
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[1] Url:
https://climate-reporting.org/undercover-saudi-arabia-keep-burning-oil/
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