Saudi Crown Prince says climate goals to boost Mideast economies

Saudi Arabia said Middle Eastern economies will be boosted by efforts to cut planet-warming greenhouse gases.

“Climate change is an economic opportunity for individuals and the private sector,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in Riyadh on Monday at a forum attended by several heads of state.

Reducing emissions will “create jobs and strengthen creativity in the region.”

The kingdom will establish a fund to improve carbon-capture technology and back an initiative to develop clean fuels and provide food for hundreds of millions of people, Prince Mohammed said. The two initiatives will cost SAR39bn ($10.4bn) and Saudi Arabia will contribute 15 per cent.

On Saturday, the prince pledged that Saudi Arabia would eliminate greenhouse gas emissions within its borders by 2060. It marked a seismic shift for the world’s biggest oil exporter, though officials included plenty of caveats and emphasised that Saudi Arabia and others would need to pump crude for decades to come.

The new goal “is a major step forward,” US President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, said. “It’s critical to have one of the world’s largest producers of fossil fuels step up at a moment when all countries, no matter their circumstances, need to come together.”