<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/27/revealed-saudi-arabia-plan-poor-countries-oil>
"Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its
oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed.
Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful
products”.
Little was known about the oil demand sustainability programme (ODSP) but the
investigation obtained detailed information on plans to drive up the use of
fossil fuel-powered cars, buses and planes in Africa and elsewhere, as rich
countries increasingly switch to clean energy.
The ODSP plans to accelerate the development of supersonic air travel, which it
notes uses three times more jet fuel than conventional planes, and partner with
a carmaker to mass produce a cheap combustion engine vehicle. Further plans
promote power ships, which use polluting heavy fuel oil or gas to provide
electricity to coastal communities.
The ODSP is overseen by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, the crown prince
Mohammed bin Salman, and involves its biggest organisations, such as the $700bn
Public Investment Fund, the world’s largest oil company, Aramco, the
petrochemicals firm Sabic, and the government’s most important ministries.
In publicly available information, the programme is largely presented as
“removing barriers” to energy and transport in poorer countries and “increasing
sustainability”, for example by providing gas cooking stoves to replace wood
burning.
However, all the planned projects revealed in the investigation by the Centre
for Climate Reporting and
Channel 4 News involve increasing the use of oil
and gas. An official said this was “one of the main objectives”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
