Gulf Arab states, squeezed by climate change, still tout oil

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The global energy transition is perhaps nowhere more perplexing than in the Arabian Peninsula, where Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies are caught between two daunting climate change scenarios that threaten their livelihoods.

In one, the world stops burning oil and gas to cut down on heat-trapping emissions, shaking the very foundation of their economies. In the other, global temperatures keep rising, at the risk of rendering unlivable much of the Gulf’s already extremely hot terrain.

The political stability of the six Gulf states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman — is rooted in profits from fossil fuels. This includes exports that energy-hungry China and India will want even more over the next two decades.

“Climate action, it’s almost an existential problem for an absolute monarchy based on oil exports,” said Jim Krane, author of “Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Persian Gulf.”

https://apnews.com/article/climate-technology-business-environment-and-nature-middle-east-c9f2733f576c570f70dcc1ef631403c5

[NNadir]

1. I keep hearing about this "energy transition." Where is it?

The rate of new accumulations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste CO2 has been scraping close to 2.5 ppm/year for all of 2021, after being around 1.5 ppm/year as recently as 2000.

How come we keep pretending there's a "transition?" If there is one, it's from bad to worse, not that "from bad to worse" is likely to stop people from lying to themselves.

It is precisely this lying that is the cause of the tragedy.