MANAMA: WHEN His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman pledged to make the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia carbon neutral by 2060 under the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI), two of the world’s leading companies in the energy and chemicals sectors were quick to extend full support with their own parallel net-zero plans.

Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, said it would aim to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across its wholly-owned operated assets by 2050; and SABIC meanwhile proposed to achieve carbon neutrality from global operations under its control.

The Crown Prince said $10.4 billion will be allocated for an investment fund and clean energy project as part of efforts to reduce regional carbon emissions.

These proposals come just before the UN’s summit on climate change, COP26, is held in Glasgow, UK, where Saudi Arabia will seek to improve its credibility as a responsible and an environment-caring oil producer.

Global credit rating agency Moody’s says the Kingdom’s commitment to net zero in 2060 is consistent with the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative.

Although Saudi Arabia is unlikely to materially reduce its production and exports of oil and gas it over the next several decades, this will, however, be contrasted by improvements in domestic energy use efficiency, and an increased use of renewables and replacing crude oil with natural gas in domestic power generation, measures which the net zero objective corresponds to," Alexander Perjessy, Vice-President - Senior Analyst at the agency tells OGN.

He expects Saudi Arabia to push ahead with its (blue and green) hydrogen ambitions to capture the new and growing market for alternative fuels.