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https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/07/saudi-arabia-focuses-on-emissions-from-wind-and-solar-over-oil-00130506>
"Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is urging nations to take action on what it suggests is
a growing threat to the Earth’s climate — wind and solar power.
The pitch from the world’s biggest oil player includes a Saudi government
document, obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News, expressing concern about the
“lifecycle” greenhouse gas emissions of wind, solar and other renewable energy
sources, whose popularity has grown as countries look for alternatives to
planet-heating fossil fuels.
It comes as the kingdom is stepping up its broader arguments that expensive,
largely unproven methods of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and
oceans are an essential part of the strategy for countering climate change. In
contrast, scientists, environmental activists and representatives of vulnerable
island nations say the most urgently needed fix for climate change is to stop
producing and burning oil, natural gas and coal.
Other major fossil fuel nations — including the United States — have also
expressed support for a technological approach to reducing carbon pollution, in
conjunction with shifting toward greener energy sources. But the Saudis have
gone a step further by contending that carbon removal is also needed to address
climate pollution from wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energy
hardware, according to text of a previously unreported speech scheduled before
the COP28 climate summit began last week.
“Renewables are an integral part of the solution,” a Saudi official was set to
argue in the Oct. 31 closed-door speech to fellow diplomats, according to a
copy of the prepared text. But the Saudi text added that “we must also act
immediately to address their lifecycle emissions in the near term. This will
require emissions removal.”
Saudi Arabia’s U.S. embassy didn’t respond to questions about the document,
which aligns with public statements that Saudi officials have made touting
related technology that captures carbon from smokestacks. Advocates for more
aggressive climate action say they worry that the kingdom is promoting efforts
to manage carbon — and undercut renewables — in order to weaken support for
weaning the world off of greenhouse-gas-spewing fossil fuels.
“They’ve been at this for years and years and years,” Bill Hare, a climate
science adviser to the Caribbean nation of Grenada, said of Saudi climate
negotiators. “They come up with all sorts of ways to argue for delay, one way
or the other. It’s another twist and turn in their delay playbook.”
In addition, the Saudis’ argument about planet-warming emissions from the
manufacturing and installation of renewable power are “totally exaggerated,”
said Hare, who is also CEO of the European think tank Climate Analytics.
Analyses of electricity from solar panels, for instance, have found it has a
carbon footprint that’s a fraction of the size of coal-fired power."
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
