By AFP - Agence France Presse
Saudi Arabia bets on technology to make deserts bloom
By Sofiane Alsaar
Saudi Arabia is investing in green innovation to transform its deserts, but accusations of greenwashing highlight the challenge of turning ambitious projects into climate solutions.
This week, Riyadh is hosting the United Nations COP16 conference on drought and desertification - issues close to the heart of the Gulf kingdom, whose authorities have said they intend to restore 40 million hectares of degraded land.
But while the country is a major investor in climate technology, it has not abandoned its long-standing defense of oil, and critics say its gestures towards the environment offer only limited benefits.
Saudi Arabia accounts for almost 75% of the Middle East's investment in climate technology start-ups worldwide, according to a 2023 report by auditor PwC.
But its investment in green technology leans towards energy, with $363 million invested in climate-friendly energy solutions - almost ten times more than was invested in innovations related to food, agriculture, and land use, PwC said.
On a vast campus in the desert north of Jeddah, a project that could be useful in the arid kingdom is using microorganisms to reduce the energy cost of wastewater treatment.
The treatment facility seeks to “purify and treat wastewater in an energy-neutral or even positive way,” said Peiying Hong, an environmental science and engineering academic who oversees the facility at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
The process, she said, relies on microorganisms that convert carbon into methane gas, which is collected and used to produce energy for the facility.
The filtered water from the process “can be used to grow microalgae to produce feed for livestock or to irrigate plants and trees to combat desertification,” she added.
Sand into soil
The recycled water could be valuable for the country, which is largely desert and has extremely limited water resources.
As part of the so-called Middle East Green Initiative, Saudi Arabia aims to plant 10 billion trees, according to the project's website, and rehabilitate more than 74 million hectares of land.
To achieve these ambitions, efficient management of water and soil resources is essential.
Himanshu Mishra, also an expert in environmental science and engineering at KAUST, said that his team has developed a product that they believe is capable of transforming the kingdom's desert into fertile land.
“We are turning sand into soil,” said the professor.
The carbon-enriched compost made from chicken manure - an abundant and underused resource in Saudi Arabia - is developed one step further than normal fertilizer.
Mishra explained that his innovation “acts like a sponge to retain these nutrients and water while promoting microbial biodiversity,” which plants need to thrive.
As a result, the professor's experimental farm was filled with greenery.
Mishra explained that by selling its carbonated topsoil, produced in the kingdom from local waste, Saudi Arabia could become “an exporter of both the product and its technology.”
Greenwashing?
Despite their potential, the implementation of these systems at a national or regional level requires financial support and political will.
“We need funding and risk investment to demonstrate their effectiveness on a large scale,” said Hong.
But John Robinson, investor, and partner at Mazarine Ventures, says that raising funds for these types of start-ups remains “extremely difficult”, although some manage to attract private investors.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's ambitions have not been replaced by its fierce defense of oil, as the country remains the world's largest exporter of crude.
As well as combating desertification, the kingdom is focusing on technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen production as part of what it calls the “circular carbon economy.”
But critics have labeled these efforts “greenwashing,” saying they aim to enable continued investment in fossil fuels.
In May 2024, the European Center for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR) said that the Saudi Green Initiative “hides the country's continued dependence on fossil fuels and contempt for environmental justice behind grandiose promises of sustainability.”
Riyadh justifies the policy as necessary for its energy security.
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