Saudi Arabia emboldened at COP27 as energy demand ‘exposes hypocrisies’

Saudi Arabia emboldened at COP27 as energy demand ‘exposes hypocrisies’

Saudi Arabia has arrived at the COP27 climate summit emboldened by the renewed demand for fossil fuels from sources other than Russia after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at the end of the first week of the climate summit in Egypt, Saudi’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, said the Ukraine war had “exposed the hypocrisies that have been around for a long time and that we have talked about for years”. 

“People argue that we should reduce oil production. And then . . . you have a crisis and people are demanding that we increase oil production. It doesn't work both ways,” said al-Jubeir in an interview.

The war has left the EU rushing to replace the fossil fuels no longer coming from Russia, while the US and Saudi Arabia are at loggerheads over American pleas to the world’s largest oil exporter and the Opec+ oil cartel not to cut production targets.

However, the EU and US have continued to emphasise that the return to dirtier fossil fuels is a short-term reaction to the supply cuts, and they remain committed to accelerating the shift to cleaner energy through various green financing initiatives. President Joe Biden touted his $369bn climate and tax legislation, in