St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2021)

[M044-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:24 · St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2021) · 2021-06-03 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, I have been asked this question just fresh yesterday, and my reply was that we are increasing our production capacity. Certainly, we are very confident that, not only, we are already decided to do so, but I still repeat that you may expect some more of that to happen, because quiet honestly as Alexander was saying, and everybody was saying, I think it is quiet irresponsible to try to zoom in on an agreement where you show a particular preference of a choice that is, you know, I know and everybody probably in this audience cannot imagine it happening, but it is a scenario that sounds appealing looks appealing, but then the devil is in the details, how you are going to go from here and here, I believe that the whole planet earth has always been in transition ever since the God created it and will continue being in transition.

[M044-03] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:41 · St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2021) · 2021-06-03 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

And its the duty humankind to make sure that we harness that transition, we master it, and we ensure that that transition bring, as our favourite lady here has mentioned that our goal should congregate around how can we make a human being living better living, regardless of where, and this is the trick, regardless of what region they live in. The problem we have is that there is a type of condescending approach that is in command of the situation, whereby people have enumerated their priorities, but they are not subjugating them to others, in trying to achieve successes and achievements and mitigating the issue of climate change when needs to be inclusive, and for that inclusiveness to happen, people need to be conscious of national circumstances, of all parties to engaged.

[M044-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:01 · St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2021) · 2021-06-03 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

As for us , as Saudi Arabia, we have been a proactive, and took a proactive role in formalizing the Paris Agreement, and we were one of the first to ratify the Paris Agreement, and we want to ensure that we have been doing this since we ratified the Paris Agreement that we have ensure that we have committed ourselves and continue committing ourselves to ensure that we fulfill our commitments as win amongst many. We certainly have proactively engaged in so many activities, such as, I can memorize just a few, but I liked what Alexander was saying about wind and which we will be doing a lot of it, but there is additional thing apart from plastic, there is also wood that goes into the windmill, because you have to cut lots of trees outside from using lots of plastic because the inner filling of these plates is wood. So, here you go in your endeavor to transition from hydrocarbon to renewable, you are actually reducing the ability of creating an sufficient things to ensure that removal will be achieved.

[M044-05] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:36 · St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2021) · 2021-06-03 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We believe strongly, as Saudi Arabia, and luckily we were hosting the G20 last year, and all G20 countries had agreed that a circular carbon economy is the way forward in ensuring inclusivity, in ensuring as our had here mentioned that technology should be spearheading the approach. The challenge is technological, the challenge is not taxing, because if we go about taxing, if we go about throwing money here and there, like the $5 trillion that is mentioned, well, the $5 trillion out of the current GDP constitutes something around 6-7% lower GDP, which means, and this GDP has been taxed by about 20 trillion. So actually, you are imposing some sort of a cost to the economy in the neighborhood of additional 25% of the current taxes that have been collective globally, that 5 trillion, if it is collectible, when we will need to ask, is this the right way to spend it?

[M044-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:51 · St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2021) · 2021-06-03 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Do we have got millions and millions that are suffering from energy poverty as we speak today. Can we mitigate biomass consumption by working hard with so many of us here in this room, and I name Alexander and I name my friend from Qatar, to work on providing cooking fuels for the 750 million people that are debriefed from that? Can we talk about how can we make energy more sustainable? Yes, we can, but I believe that the issue of inclusiveness has to prevail, and I assume that our challenge has always been as human, what technologies we need to bring to mitigate these concerns, common concerns because it has to become a common concern.