Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud said that Saudi Arabia is the top-exporter of oil and has set a goal to eliminate net emissions by 2060. He also increased its target for carbon reductions to almost 285 million metric tons per year.

The Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke in recorded remarks to the Saudi Green Initiative. It is a precursor to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties or COP26 in Glasgow (Oct. 31 – Nov. 12). This conference hopes to achieve deeper emission cuts in order to address global warming.

Prince Mohammed stated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has set a goal to achieve zero net emissions by 2060 as part of its circular carbon economy program. This is in line with the Kingdom’s development plan… and while maintaining the Kingdom’s leadership role in strengthening the security and stability on global oil markets.

Riyadh is a signatory of the Paris climate agreement and provided details on its nationally determined contributions (NDCs). These are goals that individual countries must meet in order to stop global average temperatures rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius.

USA and EU both want Saudi Arabia joining a global initiative to cut methane emissions 30% below 2020 levels. This will be done by 2030. John Kerry, U.S. climate representative will participate in a regional summit on the Middle East hosted by Riyadh.

Prince Mohammed stated that the Saudi Green Initiative will reduce carbon emissions by 278 million tonnes per annum, which is more than 130 million tons.

Saudi Arabia pledged in March to cut carbon emissions by more that 4% through global contributions. Initiatives include generating half of the country’s energy from renewables and planting billions in desert states.

The United Arab Emirates is a Gulf OPEC producer and earlier this month, it announced a plan to have net-zero emission by 2050.

Saudi Arabia was criticised for being slow to act, and Climate Action Tracker gave it the lowest ranking possible of “critically inadequate”.

Kingdom’s economy continues to be heavily dependent upon oil income, as the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has not achieved his economic diversification ambitions.

Saudi officials claim that the world will need Saudi oil for many decades.

Experts warn that it is still too early to know the effects of Saudi’s growing solar and wind energy projects. In April it opened its first renewable energy plant, and in August the first wind farm began producing power.

Megaprojects like futuristic city NEOM include green energy plans, including a $5B hydrogen plant. Additionally, Saudi-linked entities have begun to shift towards green fundraising.

Concerns about Saudi Arabia’s carbon footprint have been raised by some investors. Other analysts claim Saudi Arabia has the lowest amount of carbon per barrel and Prince Mohammed is serious in economic diversification.

It is clear that the carbon footprint poses a serious problem. We would like to highlight the fact that carbon will be slow to phase-out, and that oil will still be around for some time,” Tim Ash, BlueBay Asset Management, said in an emailed comment.