Dear Albara Tawfiq, Policy Advisor, Ministry of Energy and lead negotiator of Saudi Arabia’s Delegation to COP27, Tawfiqaez@gmail.com
Our names are Abeer Abdulkareem and Amgad Ellaboudy. We are Country Managers for Saudi Arabia for Climate Scorecard, a non-profit organization that monitors leading greenhouse gas-emitting countries’ climate policies and programs.
Based on a review of Saudi Arabia’s policies, we believe much can be done to increase your country’s climate ambition, achieve the global goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, and become carbon neutral by 2050. Therefore, we suggest that you adopt the following goals and announce these goals at COP28.
# 1 Saudi Arabia Announces It Will Strengthen Its Paris Agreement pledge: As of 2022, Saudi Arabia had pledged to achieve a target reduction of 278 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MTCO2e) a year by 2030. We suggest that you announce a revision of this and related targets at COP28. We suggest that you announce that 2030 Saudi Arabia will reduce its emissions below 389 MtCO2e by 2030 and to below 263 MtCO2e by 2050 and become carbon neutral by 2060. This goal can be achieved by phasing out the production of fossil fuel completely, setting clear and specific mechanisms and timelines to scale up renewable electricity generation capacity to meet the goal of 50% of its electricity from renewable energy, establishing a clear regulatory framework and offering incentives to attract private investments in renewables, incentivizing public-private collaboration, including partnerships with international companies, to accelerate the growth of the renewable energy sector.
# 2 Saudi Arabia Announces It Will End the Production of Fossil Fuels:
Crude oil is currently the main source of Saudi Arabia’s energy and economic power. As of 2022, Saudi Arabia produces 12.1 million barrels of crude oil per day.
In light of the above, a conceivable plan for Saudi Arabia to end fossil fuel production by 2060 could involve the following:
Accelerated Diversification: Intensifying efforts to diversify the economy away from oil, investing heavily in other sectors like renewable energy, technology, and tourism to reduce the economic dependency on fossil fuels.
Enhanced Renewable Energy Adoption: Expand the current initiatives to adopt renewable energy sources and possibly set more aggressive targets to replace a significant portion of the energy generated from fossil fuels with renewable energy before 2060.
International Collaboration: Engaging in international agreements to reduce fossil fuel production and consumption, possibly in exchange for economic or technological support to help transition towards a more sustainable energy infrastructure.
Technological Innovation: Investing in research and development to drive technological innovations that can help reduce costs and improve the efficiency of renewable energy sources, as well as carbon capture and storage technologies.
I hope you will incorporate these suggestions in your presentation at COP28, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Sincerely,
Abeer Abdulkareem & Amgad Ellaboudy
Climate Scorecard —- Country Managers