“False solutions”… Doubts about Saudi Arabia’s carbon sequestration plans

the newspaper saidKeeperBritish on Saturday said energy experts questioned the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s plans to cut emissions, which they described as “false”.

The paper added that Saudi Arabia has been using tactics designed to thwart climate change negotiations for several years, with a focus on carbon-capture technologies, which experts say are likely to delay the transition away from fossil fuels.

Saudi Arabia, which is the world’s second-largest oil producer and accounts for nearly 15 percent of global production, announced plans at the “Cop27” conference in Egypt for what it described as a “circular carbon economy,” in cooperation with the national oil company Aramco.

Essentially, the plan includes the construction of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage facility, to be operated by Aramco, in the eastern region of the kingdom of Jubail.

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the center will start operating in 2027, as it will initially extract and store 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, and the amount will rise to around 44 million tonnes by 2035.

The newspaper noted that Saudi Arabia’s focus on carbon capture and storage technology rather than reducing fossil fuel consumption has been met with widespread skepticism from experts and observers.

The paper quoted Greenpeace Middle East chief Giwa Nakat as saying that “all that has been presented are illusions and wrong solutions, a waste of time and money.”

He added: “We recognize the difficulty of an economy that has been overly dependent on oil for decades in letting go of what it sees as a golden age.”

Observers of Saudi Arabia’s tactics in climate talks say the kingdom’s move to increase carbon dioxide capture and storage comes after years of trying to derail negotiations over efforts to combat climate change.

The newspaper confirms that Saudi Arabia says it wants to reach its goal of net-zero emissions by 2060, although this goal depends on the capture and storage of carbon dioxide.

It turns out that a scientist has claimed that carbon capture is a controversial technology that cannot provide the only solution to the climate crisis.

Some fear, according to the newspaper, that this technology provides a way for fossil fuel companies to continue polluting, while others question the feasibility of carbon capture and storage and the long-term cost proposed by Saudi Arabia and other other countries.

The Saudi embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said last week in a speech on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt that the world hoped to be “represented” by Saudi Arabia as the largest exporter of oil.

The Saudi minister spoke about the kingdom’s efforts to produce clean energy and reduce its carbon emissions, noting that the kingdom will monitor the performance of other countries.

He said: “The world wants to represent us. We will ask (countries) of the world what they offer because we want others to emulate us and direct their money to support the causes they complain about.”

He added that Saudi state oil production company, Aramco, has the lowest methane emissions by all standards and said Saudi Arabia is also on track to achieve zero carbon neutrality by 2060 and maybe even earlier.