Saudi Arabia capped its presidency of the G20 on 22 November with a pledge to tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
King Salman, speaking at a session on climate on the sidelines of the G20 summit hosted by the kingdom in virtual format, said the world’s biggest oil exporter would develop a circular carbon economy and generate half of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030.
The commitment from the Saudi monarch is significant in that it marks a break with the past. Before it took over the G20 presidency in October 2019, Saudi Arabia would pay lip service to the climate agenda at G20 gatherings while behind the scenes it would join the US and Russia in redacting communiques to delete references to climate change. All that changed when Riyadh assumed leadership of the economic bloc and used the platform to showcase its green credentials.
The US’ voice was absent this time as President Donald Trump made a cameo appearance and slammed the 2015 Paris climate accord from which he withdrew in the first year of his presidency.
The closing statement of the Riyadh summit communique referred to climate change and environmental degradation as “among the most pressing challenges of our time”.
The US failed to change the wording at a meeting of G20 finance ministers earlier in the year in what perhaps signaled that the Saudi leadership was parting ways with the Trump administration on this particular issue.
The EU, which has led the global effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions, made a point of saying in its summit report that leaders had succeeded in Riyadh where three previous summits had failed. President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which has no decarbonization strategy to speak of, did not object.
(source: MEES Insights)