Saudi initiatives are the most sound options for confronting challenges of climate change

Arab News

4 days ago

Specialists have indicated that temperatures across the Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, may rise by as much as 9 C by the year 2100. Hot zones have already been recorded above the Saudi capital, and projections suggest that extreme heat days in Riyadh will increase to 132 days a year by 2040.
A study published this year found that between May 2024 and May 2025 the world experienced 67 severe heatwaves, attributed to the excessive use of conventional fuels. Furthermore, 49 percent of the global population endured at least 30 additional days of high temperatures.
March of this year marked the 20th month out of the past 21 in which the average high temperatures exceeded the 1.5 C threshold. This specific limit was established at the 2015 Paris Summit, resulting in an agreement signed by 196 nations, though only a few have adhered to it. Should this limited commitment persist, the situation could reach a critical stage.
More concerning is that the air we breathe today is contaminated with radiation, a legacy of nuclear detonations carried out by the US in Japan during the Second World War, as well as tests conducted by several other countries. These countries conducted a total in excess of of 2,000 nuclear tests underground, in the atmosphere, and deep in the oceans over a span of 53 years (from 1945 to 1998).
In 2018, The Straits Times, a Singaporean newspaper, reported on the theft of debris from 48 naval ships that sank off the coast of Singapore following the Second World War. It was discovered that these ships were made of non-radioactive steel, predating the use of nuclear technology. The thieves sold the material to Chinese companies for use in the manufacture of precision scientific and medical devices, which cannot be produced with radioactive steel due to its danger to humans. This suggests that even the industrial revolution itself has not been spared.
Study found world experienced 67 severe heatwaves in a year
Alf Hornborg, professor of human ecology at Lund University in Sweden, has published some important words regarding climate crises, and states that there is misleading information within the subject. He said that in order for Europeans to drive environmentally friendly cars, they shift the environmental and ethical burden resulting from this by pressuring countries like Brazil to cultivate crops from which ethanol is extracted. They then hold these countries responsible for their non-compliant actions, when in reality they were the ones who incited them. What is important, in their view, is to preserve their own environment from pollution.
I believe this illustrates a strange opportunism and narcissism from the Northern Hemisphere countries, especially European nations and the US, against the non-industrialized countries of the South.
The major industrialized nations, as evidenced by international reports, are responsible for the largest part of the problem. The proof is that from 1850 to 2021, about 2,500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide were pumped into the atmosphere, according to a report from the investigative website Carbon Brief, which specializes in monitoring climate change.
Three countries, the US, China, and Russia, were behind 38 percent of the aforementioned emissions, with 20 percent for the first, 11 percent for the second, and 7 percent for the third. The preceding statistics concern manufacturing emissions and do not include wars and their environmental impacts.
Strikingly, the average temperature in 2021 was double that of 1821. This occurred within 200 years, a very short period in the Earth's age, in which climate changes are typically measured in millennia.
A report published by the World Meteorological Organization noted that the average number of environmental disasters has reached one per day over the last 50 years, or about 365 disasters annually. Incidents such as hurricanes, droughts, and fires kill an average of 115 people daily. A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the UN provided clear and undeniable evidence that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2019 was the highest in 2 million years.
Spanish physicist Jose Maria Martin said in 2024 that during heatwaves in which temperatures in Europe reach 45 C, the mortality rate is expected to increase by up to 40 percent.
The current rate in the increase of temperatures will lead to rising sea and ocean levels, resulting in various disasters, as well as desertification, drought, shrinking rivers, contraction of the Amazon forests (dubbed the lungs of the world), and melting ice. Sea ice volume has already receded to its lowest level in 47 years.
The imperative is simply to maintain the status quo, as the possibility of reducing temperatures is completely ruled out.
I believe that Saudi Arabia's initiatives, along with its plans for carbon neutrality and the use of clean energy, are globally the most sound options for confronting the complex challenges of climate change.
• Dr. Bader bin Saud is a columnist for Al-Riyadh newspaper, a media and knowledge management researcher, an expert and university professor in crowd management and strategic planning, and the former deputy commander of the special forces for Hajj and Umrah in Saudi Arabia. X: @BaderbinSaud.