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Saudi Arabia to establish fund to improve carbon-capture technology | |
| Staff Writer |
Saudi Arabia said on Monday that Middle Eastern economies will be boosted by efforts to cut planet-warming greenhouse gases.
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“Climate change is an economic opportunity for individuals and the private sector,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in Riyadh on Monday at a forum attended by several heads of state.
Reducing emissions will “create jobs and strengthen creativity in the region,” he said.
The kingdom will establish a fund to improve carbon-capture technology and back an initiative to develop clean fuels and provide food for hundreds of millions of people, Prince Mohammed said.
The two initiatives will cost SR39 billion ($10.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia will contribute 15 percent.
On Saturday, the prince pledged that Saudi Arabia would eliminate greenhouse gas emissions within its borders by 2060. It marked a seismic shift for the world’s biggest oil exporter, though officials included plenty of caveats and emphasized that Saudi Arabia and others would need to pump crude for decades to come.
“It’s critical to have one of the world’s largest producers of fossil fuels step up at a moment when all countries, no matter their circumstances, need to come together.”