Saudi Arabia Promises to help Reduce CO2 Emissions in Oil Industry

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and therefore the world’s largest indirect polluter, has finally signalled it will help the fight against global warming through, wait for it, helping research into reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the oil industry!

“I believe the petroleum industry should actively engage in policy debate on climate change as well as play an active role in developing and implementing carbon management technologies to meet future challenges,” the president and CEO of Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Abdallah Jumah, told the UN  Protocol meeting in Germany. “National oil companies — like Saudi Aramco — can make meaningful contributions to those efforts,” he added.

At least this is a step forward in the sense that for years Saudi Arabia did everything in its power to derail the UN Climate talks. So now as the world fries, they promise to do research in to reducing emissions within the industry. How about just leaving the oil in the ground instead. Now that would be a radical step. It wouldn’t need much research either.