PDF - Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

2006. 4 In recent months the Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Ali
rhetoric. All GCC member countries signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2005 or
Naimi, has repeatedly spoken in favour of alternative sources of energy. In an interview
published in the French oil newsletter Petrostrategies, he stated, ‘For a country like Saudi
Arabia ... one of the most important sources of energy to look at and to develop is solar
energy.’ He added, ‘One of the research efforts that we are going to undertake is to see
how we make Saudi Arabia a centre for solar energy research, and hopefully over the
next 30 to 50 years we will be a major megawatt exporter. In the same way we are an oil
exporter, we can also be an exporter of power.’
More recently, speaking in Beijing on 7–8 November, the minister underlined the
important role of technology in addressing climate change.
I firmly believe that when it comes to technologies aimed at mitigating climate
change, the world has barely scratched the surface and the research, development and
innovation in this area need much greater attention than is presently the case. The list
of what we can do includes, but is not limited to, multiple ways of greatly enhancing
the efficiency of energy use in a variety of applications, cleaner and futuristic forms
of conventional and unconventional fuels, and numerous ways of carbon capture and
sequestration, besides many breakthrough technologies that are not even on the
horizon today. 5
Solar and other alternative energy sources figure prominently in the research
agenda of such Saudi institutions as the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
and the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, and Saudi Aramco is
interested in carbon capture and sequestration.
In Abu Dhabi the Masdar Initiative, launched in April 2006, is presented as ‘a
bold and historic decision to embrace renewable and sustainable energy technologies’.
Abu Dhabi claims that ‘as the first major hydrocarbon-producing nation to take such a
step, it has established its leadership position by launching the Masdar Initiative, a global
cooperative platform for open engagement in the search for solutions to some of
mankind’s most pressing issues: energy security, climate change and truly sustainable
4 Depledge (2008) gives a vivid account of what she terms obstructionist tactics on the part of the kingdom
in global climate negotiations. She believes that the kingdom’s and other GCC countries’ acceptance of the
Kyoto Protocol is instrumental. But at the end of the article she recognizes that there has been a change of
tack in the GCC countries’ posture.
5 Excerpts from the speech were published by the Middle East Economic Survey on 17 November 2008.
11