Revealed: Saudi Arabia's grand plan to 'hook' poor countries on oil

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Revealed: Saudi Arabia’s grand plan to ‘hook’ poor countries on oil

Climate scientists say fossil fuel use needs to fall rapidly – but oil-rich kingdom is working to drive up demand

Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Mon 27 Nov 2023 19.00 GMT
Last modified on Tue 28 Nov 2023 02.30 GMT

Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed. Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful products”.

Little was known about the oil demand sustainability programme (ODSP) but the investigation obtained detailed information on plans to drive up the use of fossil fuel-powered cars, buses and planes in Africa and elsewhere, as rich countries increasingly switch to clean energy.

The ODSP plans to accelerate the development of supersonic air travel, which it notes uses three times more jet fuel than conventional planes, and partner with a carmaker to mass produce a cheap combustion engine vehicle. Further plans promote power ships, which use polluting heavy fuel oil or gas to provide electricity to coastal communities.

The ODSP is overseen by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, and involves its biggest organisations, such as the $700bn Public Investment Fund, the world’s largest oil company, Aramco, the petrochemicals firm Sabic, and the government’s most important ministries.

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Read more: https://archive.is/GEU11

Original Guardian link (registration required): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/27/revealed-saudi-arabia-plan-poor-countries-oil

[Think. Again.]

1. That was a shocking article to read....

...it's like we're living in a high suspense drama with a devastating plot twist just at the crucial moment.

So much is at stake here, and I mean so much more than just vast sums of oil wealth, in fact, literally everything could be riding on whether humanity stops burning fossil fuels in the next 2 or 3 decades or not. And then there's this.

If the wealthy western nations don't immediately get our acts together, and go hard and heavy on fossil fuel reduction AND assisting the less wealthy nations with moving forward into clean energy, we are all screwed.

I desperately hope that the African nations realize that developing their own secure, non-CO2 energy sources will be a much, much better path to take than allowing Saudi Arabia to addict them to purchasing oil.

[usonian]

2. Thanks for posting. I was going to post and saw yours! K&R

I saw the article at the Centre for Climate Reporting.
No paywall.

https://climate-reporting.org/undercover-saudi-arabia-keep-burning-oil/

Cheap cars, supersonic jets and floating power plants: Undercover in Saudi Arabia’s secretive program to keep the world burning oil

Speaking to undercover reporters, Saudi energy officials disclosed ambitious plans to undo progress on phasing out oil by financing high carbon infrastructure across Africa and Asia.