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The oil-rich desert kingdom seeks support to develop alternative energy sources and to earn credits for storing greenhouse gases underground in near-depleted oil wells. “We have a lot of sun, a lot of land,” Al Sabban told the news agency. “We can export solar power to our neighbours on a very large scale and that is our strategic objective to diversify our economy; it will be huge.”
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“We need the industrialised countries to assist us through direct investment, transfer of technologies,” to ease the burden of a new climate deal, he added. Saudi Arabia wants access to a UN adaptation fund which the world body’s climate chief, Yvo de Boer, describes as a “pittance”. According to Al Sabban, “Adaptation is not only to the impact of climate change but also the impact of climate policies.”
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The country also seeks a re-vamping of fossil-fuel taxes in industrialised countries to focus on carbon rather than energy, and elimination of subsidies for biofuels. “It’s a matter of survival for us also,” Al Sabban said. “So we are among the most vulnerable countries, economically. Saudi Arabia has not done that much yet to diversify.”
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Al Sabban spoke on the fringes of the just-concluded climate talks in Bonn. The conference was the latest in a series of meetings meant to forge — in Copenhagen in December – a global emissions deal extending beyond 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires.
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