Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia rises one spot to 62nd in this year’s CCPI. This keeps it out of the bottom rank, but well within the very low performing countries and second to last overall. Saudi Arabia receives very low ratings in the Energy Use and Climate Policy categories and low in Renewable Energy and GHG Emission.

Saudi Arabia’s climate targets are not ambitious enough

Saudi Arabia’s new Nationally Determined Contribution has a more ambitious emissions-reduction target than the previous one. However, neither its 2030 GHG target nor its GHG per capita are aligned with a well-below-2°C pathway. It, in fact, has the highest per capita GHG emissions among the G20 nations. The country’s climate targets and policies are also not consistent with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit.

Saudi Arabia is one of the 20 countries with the largest developed oil reserves. And it plans to increase its gas and coal production by more than 5% by 2030 (compared with 2019).

Key Outcomes

CCPI experts

National experts that contributed to the policy evaluation of this year’s CCPI chose to remain anonymous.