A SAUDI PERSPECTIVE ON COP 26 AND CURRENT INITIATIVES

Saudi Arabia's socio-economic development has strongly revolved around the wealth generated from oil and gas exports, accounting for about 70 per cent of total government export earnings and about 50 per cent of gross domestic product as of 2019 (OPEC, 2020). Hence, Saudi Arabia's vulnerability to climate change is not limited to its bio-physical impacts, given its arid environment and sensitive ecosystems, but also includes the potential impacts of so-called climate change response measures (RM), especially constraints on fossil fuel consumption, as it is highly dependent on a single source of income. Despite the importance of hydrocarbons in its economy, Saudi Arabia has joined global forces to address climate change: it joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1994, ratified the Paris Agreement (PA) in 2016, and had submitted its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC), which became its NDC, ahead of the Conference of Parties (COP) in December 2015.