From 10 to 21 November 2025, 196 countries met in Belém, Brazil, to discuss the global progress on climate change. Over half of the present states were pushing for an explicit reference, in the final agreement, to the global phase out of fossil fuels, but Saudi Arabia led demands to exclude such language. The Saudi delegate stated that any language in the deal targeting Saudi oil industry would lead to Saudi Arabia collapsing the global consensus.
Saudi Arabia is capable of vetoing any clause it disagrees with, as Cop summits are only able to pass deals that are agreed upon by all countries in attendance. This has been the system of voting since the creation of the UNFCC, as any attempt to change to a majority vote system has been vetoed by Saudi Arabia, since 1992.
Saudi Arabia has interest in blocking any move to transition away from the use of fossil fuels, as 90% of its export earnings come from its oil and gas sector, which then accounts for 87% of its budget revenue. The Climate Change Performance Index ranks Saudi Arabia as the worst country rated in terms of emissions, energy use and climate policy.
Saudi Arabia’s irresponsible expansion of its fossil fuel extraction grossly impacts the violation of human rights worldwide. In 2023, the United Nations sent a letter of concern to Saudi oil company, Aramco, the world’s biggest corporate emitter, as well as the Saudi government, stating the threat to human rights its fossil fuel expansion poses. The Kingdom’s oil activities negatively impact the enshrined right of all to a healthy environment, recognised by all UN states.
ClientEarth, a global environmental NGO, filed a legal complaint against Aramco in 2021, accusing the Saudi state-owned company of the largest ever climate-related breach of international human rights law. The UN Human Rights Council expressed grave concern of the impacts on human rights, worldwide, by Saudi exploitation of fossil fuels, like the global water crisis that is limiting two billion people’s access to safe drinking water. The Human Rights Council highlighted the duty of Saudi Arabia to protect human rights by enforcing legislation that required the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, nationwide.
Saudi Arabia creates a smoke screen of greenwashing to serve as a distraction from the country’s heavy contribution to the climate crisis. In 2021, the Kingdom announced the Saudi Green Initiative to reach net-zero by 2060, plant 10 billion trees and launch a 10.4 billion dollar clean energy project in the Gulf region. Unfortunately, no concrete policies or plans complemented this announcement, and there has been no evidence of real progress towards these goals. This ‘progressive’ announcement came only a few days after the Saudi company Aramco announced its plan to increase its crude oil production from 12 million barrels a day to 13 million by 2027, despite climate experts emphasizing the need for all hydrocarbons to remain in the ground, if the world wants to achieve any progress in climate change.
The contradiction of the Saudi government in its expansion of its oil industry and its announcement of renewable energy, is its creation of a ‘circular carbon economy’. This project allows Saudi Arabia to continue its expansion of fossil fuels, while ‘balancing’ it out with the use of new technology that can re-capture its carbon, unfortunately the effectiveness of this new technology has yet to be proven. These meaningless green initiatives allow Saudi Arabia to portray a facade of dedication to the climate movement, while continuing to heavily contribute to the root causes of climate change.
It is evident that Saudi Arabia is determined to undermine all progressive initiatives to solve the climate crisis, as seen in this year’s Cop, similarly to last year’s Cop, where Saudi delegates were caught to be tampering with drafts of the final deal, and every other Cop, where the Kingdom incessantly push back efforts to curb fossil fuels, as seen in its complete disregard to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion, and its undermining of the Paris Agreement. Saudi Arabia must be held accountable to its obligations under international humanitarian law and climate treaties.
