The most edgy smile on his face, and the cloth that is his traditional thobe swaying around him as he jogs through the hallway of UN climate talks. the energy minister of Saudi Arabia expresses surprise at the repeated accusations that the world's top oil producer is in the dark to hinder talks.
"What you've been hearing is a false claim and an untruth and a fraud," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud declared this week during discussions held in Glasgow, Scotland. In response to media who demanded a response assertions the Saudi negotiators had been trying to block climate-related measures that could threaten the oil industry's demand.
"We worked very well" with the chief of the UN climate talks as well as other officials Prince Abdulaziz added.
Negotiators from more than 200 nations face the weekend deadline to reach an agreement on next steps to reduce the world's carbon emissions from fossil fuels and to fight climate change.
Saudi Arabia's involvement in climate negotiations may appear odd -- an oil-rich country that is rich and powerful due to oil that is part of negotiations in which one of the key issues is reducing consumption of fossil fuels. In addition to pledging to participate in emission reduction efforts in the country, Saudi leaders have made clear that they plan to export and pump their oil for as long as there is demand.
The Saudi Arabian Team in Glasgow has presented proposals that range from a request to end discussions that typically last into the early hours of the morning and end at 6pm each day. They also have what climate veterans claim is a complex effort to pit country factions against each other to prevent the agreement on the toughest steps to free the planet from fossil fuels like gas, coal and oil.
This is the "Saudis plan that they have proposed, in fact. They're saying, "Let's not do night shifts and admit that it's not going to be an ambitious plan" in the case of rapid reductions in the pollution from fossil fuels that has been destroying the environment according to Jennifer Tollmann, an analyst at E3G the European environmental think-tank.
Then, "if other countries want to join with Saudi then they could accuse Saudi Arabia," Tollmann stated.
Saudi Arabia long has been accused of being a spoiler during the climate negotiations, and in this year, it's the most prominent country that has been that has been singled out by negotiators speaking in private as well as observers who speak in public. Russia along with Australia are also included alongside Saudi Arabia at the talks as countries who see their futures as being dependent on natural gas, coal or oil, as well as trying to negotiate the creation of a Glasgow climate agreement that does not risk the future of those countries.
In spite of efforts to diversify its economy oil is responsible for more than half of Saudi Arabia's revenues that keeps the royal family in good health and steady. Around fifty percent of Saudi employees work in government agencies, with their salaries are largely funded through oil.
And then there's China who's dependence on coal has made China the world's top carbon polluter. It claims it's not able to transition to cleaner energy as swiftly as the West claims it should even though China and the United States and China did agree to accelerate their efforts to reduce emissions.
"Cynical and naked"
The most important issue in the talksis that scientists as well as representatives of the United Nations say the world is in a shorter timeframe than 10 years to reduce its fossil fuel consumption and agricultural emissions in half if it wishes to avoid the worst-case climate change scenarios.
It is not surprising that island nations that will disappear under rising oceans with a greater temperature is the group in Glasgow trying to get the most stringent agreement out from this conference.
In the meantime, climate activists accuse of the United States and European Union of failing to join forces with the demands of islands, even though both the US and EU usually are waiting until the final few days of climate negotiations to make a firm stand on issues that are being debated.
The United States -- the most polluting nation on earth and one of the largest energy producerhas been the subject of a lot of criticism on its own. Climate Action Network Climate Action Network dishonoured the Biden administration with its "Fossil of the Day" award to the president Joe Biden for coming to Glasgow last week to deliver a bold climate talks, but not signing an agreement to gradually wean the nation off coal , or to reduce US the production of oil.
Jennifer Morgan, executive director of the Greenpeace environmental group, has said that other governments have "to eliminate that Saudi delegation" in order for the climate summit to be successful.
Saudi Arabia was fine with participating in the climate pledge fever of the governments prior to the discussions. Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced during the lead-up the talks in Glasgow in the run-up to Glasgow that his kingdom was going to eliminate carbon emissions by 2060.
However, Saudi officials for years have pledged to remove the last drop of oil out of their kingdom until the world's demand is oversomething that a swift global shift to fossil fuels could thwart.
"Naked and sarcastic" declares Alden Meyer who is a senior associate of the E3G group for climate research about Saudi Arabia's involvement in the global climate debate.