DECRYPTION – If the Persian Gulf is ambitious in the fight against climate change, the policy of these states is nevertheless ambivalent.
The Persian Gulf is ambitious in the fight against climate change. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Oman aim for net zero CO emissions2 in 2050. Riyadh and the Emirates assure that in a few years they will produce half of their electricity from renewable or nuclear sources. In Kuwait, more than 6 billion dollars (5.5 billion euros) of clean energy and low carbon projects would be launched. Bucolic detail, during COP 27, held at the end of 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the Saudi kingdom announced the planting of 600 million trees.
The policy of these States is however ambivalent. In Sharm el-Sheikh, Riyadh fought to prevent the final declaration of COP27 from evoking the phasing out of all fossil fuels. And the Emirati Sultan al-Jaber, who heads Adnoc, the Abu Dhabi oil giant, and has just been appointed president of COP 28, called on Saturday to “to focus” on reduction…