Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (or MBS) has announced that a zero-carbon city called “The Line” is to be built as part of the $500bn Neom project.
The new city would cover 170km and house a million residents, said MBS, who added that the price tag would be $100bn to $200bn.
“Why should we sacrifice nature for the sake of development?” he said, making a rare public appearance to lead the presentation. “We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one.”
Little has so far materialised of the broader Neom project, which MBS announced in 2017. It promises a host of futuristic elements, including flying cars, robot servants, glowing beaches and an artificial moon. It is expected to cover 26,500 square kilometres.
Saudi Arabia, which is paying for the vast majority of the development, is facing economic turmoil as a result of falling oil revenues, a lack of investment over human rights concerns and the coronavirus. However, the kingdom has been keen to claim that Neom is still on track and has not been hit with the sort of austerity faced by Saudi nationals, whose welfare payments have been slashed as a result of the economic downturn.
They still claim it will be ready by 2025.
However, the Saudi regime has said that Neom will only materialise once the region’s inhabitants – 20,000 members of the Huwaitat tribe who have lived there for centuries – are displaced. And despite terrorising these communities, through detentions, harassment and even murder, they are still a thorn in the side of Neom.
Neom is part of MBS’s “Vision 2030” strategy, which aims to promote alternative energy and tourism as a means to make up for the precarious state of the oil economy, on which Saudi Arabia relies.
Despite big claims, like this one about “The Line”, foreign investors are generally staying away and coronavirus has killed off the travel industry, for now at least.
And the kingdom’s claims about creating a zero-carbon city would be taken more seriously if it was cutting back on its own fossil fuel production. Instead, it looks as though alternative energy will be an additional revenue stream, propping up the decreasingly valuable oil market.
READ MORE: Neom … A Saudi City without Saudis
