Undercover in Saudi Arabia's secretive program to keep the world burning oil

I don’t understand why the Saudis aren't spending their billions to develop synthetic fuels and direct air capture. Their cloudless desert is a great place to put solar panels to power synthetic fuel plants and they already have the refineries and shipping facilities to distribute carbon neutral fuels.

It would be very strange if they didn&#x27;t try things like these. It&#x27;s actually a pretty competent government that knows how to look for itself, the very fact that Salafism hasn&#x27;t yet destroyed them (the Saudi Family) is a massive achievement of its own, not to mention the quite effective OPEC+ cartel.<p>That being said this will be decided by whichever technology is cheaper (including things like the risk premia of being potentially cut off from supplies), regardless of agitation either way. Unless somehow, magically, we can force everyone to pay up for their share of damage caused by temperature change - which is extremely far away from being realizable. UN Security Council cannot agree on much more obvious things, like deciding in specific cases that bombing civilians is actually illegal.

&gt; &quot;There’s a fundamental policy aim, which is to burn and exploit all Saudi’s oil reserves until the last drop&quot;<p>If this is true, this sounds to me very shortsighted.<p>Our modern society will <i>always</i> require oil as the foundation for a thriving chemical industry. Digging and burning it all up means when its scarcity and price increases SA has nothing to sell.<p>Norway does it better. This are blocked extraction in the touristic Lofoten islands. If they really need it then can decide otherwise, with less disruptive tech in the future.

Not Surprising they would want to increase demand. Something I’ve always told people, is that OPEC countries have done more for the environment than any social movement or technology has. By restricting supply (to get higher prices) they have managed to prevent more co2 emissions than anything else can.<p>If you let a “free market” set oil prices for the past 60+ years instead of OPEC, then I’m sure the world would be a whole 1 degree warmer by now.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20231128161007&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2023&#x2F;11&#x2F;28&#x2F;climate&#x2F;uae-cop28-documents-al-jaber.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20231128161007&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytim...</a>

Channel 4 (UK) did a TV report of this a few days ago (based on the same underlying reporting): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;AzSq9jhhrq4?si=JDbIdBkJNEpj0RgF" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;AzSq9jhhrq4?si=JDbIdBkJNEpj0RgF</a>

The comments here are concerning, I don&#x27;t see any clear condemnation of Saudi Arabia&#x27;s actions. It is pretty clear by now that keeping pumping CO2 in the atmosphere will have dire effects for all of us, yet according to this article, they are pursuing the opposite goal, in the name of profit. This is a long-term plan to push a whole continent toward more pollution, for god&#x27;s sake!<p>That other countries are not any more concerned is not a reason to excuse them. It should rather inspire us to do better. I don&#x27;t know if there&#x27;s a way to live without oil, and I understand that countries may want to keep their privileged position. Yet I feel disgusted by this behavior. This is irresponsible.<p>(not a native speaker so sorry for any errors)

If economic support and success would lead to democracy, Saudi-Arabia would be the most democratic country in the world. Unfortunately it is just another dictatorship driven by madman ( no chance for women in Saudi Arabia ).

In some more perfect world, these oil producers would embrace a carbon tax.<p>Ultimately a carbon tax must make its way to fall onto the people that get the fossil fuels out of the ground. Those extractors can then pass it on to their customers, so it is neutral to them, except for the reduction in demand. However paying that tax frees them from the status of being the evil cabal that is destroying the planet.<p>A carbon tax also fits well into the capitalist, &quot;don&#x27;t tell me what to do&quot; self-indulgent society we live in. Want to drive your giant diesel-chugging boat out to try and catch a fish? Sure, go ahead, just pay the tax when you fuel up. Then enjoy yourself, and tell your tree hugging buddies that you&#x27;ve done your bit for the environment, as the carbon tax has gone to offset your damage.

They probably also undermine any plans by other countries to pump their own oil if its available.<p>I wish it was different, but we are still a ways off from being independent on oil.

Oil is not enough. We must increase the diversity of things we burn.

No nation is taking this climate stuff seriously.<p>Why point the finger there when we could all look in the mirror and point instead?<p>Pfft, it&#x27;s not like the US oil companies have lobbied for subsidies and to quash the whole climate issue for decades whilst breaking ground on new fossil fuel sources, lol.