Saudi Green Initiative
Chairman at Saudi Green Initiative: Action instead of lofty goals
H.E. Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan calls for a pragmatic, orderly, and multi-phased approach when making international aspirations to reduce emissions.
Aramco and Saudi Arabia are taking steps to aid the global effort to reduce emissions from the operations of the energy industry, said H.E. Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan, chairman of Aramco’s Board of Directors and governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), during a discussion at the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) forum in Dubai recently.
This year’s SGI forum was held adjacent to COP28 UAE, where Aramco and other energy companies announced ambitions to lower emissions, including reducing methane emissions to near zero by 2030.
Launched in 2021 by HRH Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, the SGI unites environmental protection, energy transition, and sustainability programs with the overarching aims of offsetting and reducing emissions, increasing the Kingdom’s use of clean energy, and addressing climate change.
Al-Rumayyan called on global leaders to take a pragmatic approach to find more sustainable and meaningful climate solutions, while also providing for the world’s growing energy needs. According to the World Economic Forum, some 750 million people have no access to electricity, and more than 2 billion lack access to clean cooking fuels.
Al-Rumayyan stressed that the world will continually need more energy, noting that we have to be more realistic. “Having said that, what can we do to make the world a better place to live?” he added.
Al-Rumayyan said that Aramco aims to lead by example, and is taking steps to reduce GHG emissions in its own operations as well as exploring long-term solutions through its future investment strategy. Among Aramco’s initiatives that have the potential to reduce emissions are the following:
• Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS)
• Blue hydrogen
• Renewables, such as AquaPower and Sudair Solar
• R&D, through Aramco’s network of global R&D centers.
Al-Rumayyan said that the energy transition requires concrete action instead of lofty goals, and specifically called for greater investment in renewable energy.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, global investment in energy transition technologies, including energy efficiency, reached a record high of $1.3 trillion in 2022. However, annual investments need to at least quadruple to remain on track to achieve the 1.5°C Scenario.
Saudi Arabia, PIF, and Aramco are working to play their parts, Al-Rumayyan said.
Now we need to ask the others, all around the world, to do something similar, instead of just talking about it in different forums. We need to monitor what is going on. If we have a more data-driven approach, it’s going to be much better than just an idea without any implementation plans.
— Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan
Al-Rumayyan called for a pragmatic, orderly, and multi-phased approach, when making international aspirations to reduce emissions — especially noting the scale of emissions accumulated by developed countries since the Industrial Revolution and the world’s top emitters today.
“So, you cannot go to the developing countries and ask them to do the same measures of the transition, especially for people who don’t have access to energy,” Al-Rumayyan said.
While the challenges of combatting the effects of climate change are great, Al-Rumayyan said he saw many reasons for hope in the initiatives currently underway, including those by Aramco, PIF, and other entities.
Caption for top photo: H.E. Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan called on global leaders to take a pragmatic approach to find more sustainable and meaningful climate solutions, while also providing for the world’s growing energy needs.