Neom: What's the green truth behind a planned eco-city in the Saudi desert?

The dark beaches have glow-in-the-dark beaches. Billions of trees were planted in the country. The trains are levitating. There is a fake moon. A city built in a straight line over 100 miles in the desert. Neom is a futuristic eco-city that is part of Saudi Arabia's pivot to go green. Is it too good to be true?

Neom claims to be a blueprint for tomorrow in which humanity progresses without compromising the health of the planet. Saudi Arabia has a plan to wean the country off oil, which made it rich.

Developers claim that Neom will be larger than Kuwait or Israel and will be governed by an independent legal system that will be drafted up by investors.

The mega-territory will include a 105m long city called The Line, which will run in a straight line through the desert.

Shihabi says that The Line will be built in stages, block by block.

He explains that each square will be self-sufficient and contain amenities such as shops and schools so that anyone can walk or cycle away.

The longest journey on The Line will never be more than 20 minutes, according to the developers.

Oxagon, the largest floating structure in the world, will be located in Neom. Nadhmi al-Nasr, the CEO of Neom, said that the port city will welcome its first manufacturing tenants at the beginning of 2022.

Neom has announced plans for the world's largest coral reef restoration project further up the Red Sea coast. The first phase of the mega-territory will be completed by 2025.

That is the vision. For now, the reality is more modest.

A satellite image shows a single square of The Line. There are rows of homes and two swimming pools.

How feasible is it to build a cutting-edge city in the middle of the desert?

There are many things to consider when evaluating how sustainable Neom can be, says Dr Manal Shehabi, an energy expert at the University of Oxford. Will food be produced locally in a system that doesn't use a lot of resources or will it rely on food imports from abroad?

Neom will become the world's most food self-sufficient city according to the website. The country currently imports 80% of its food, and it sets out a vision for vertical farming and greenhouses. There are questions about how sustainable this can be.

Critics accuse the Saudi Crown Prince of greenwashing, making grand promises about the environment to distract from reality.

The crown prince has a vision of a cleaner Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Green Initiative was launched a week before the COP26 climate change negotiations.

That was initially seen as a major step forward in the climate community, but it didn't stand up to scrutiny. She says that in order to limit warming to 1.5C, global oil production needs to fall by 5% a year.

Saudi Arabia promised to increase oil production just weeks after making headline green pledges for the climate conference. The Saudis will be the last man standing, and every molecule of hydrocarbon will come out, according to the energy minister.

It is shocking that Saudi Arabia still thinks it can continue to exploit and extract this oil in this current context.

The fuel that a country burns causes its emissions more than the fuel it produces. If a country like Saudi Arabia produces millions of barrels a year and ships them to other countries, they don't have to count them.

Saudi Arabia has a long way to go to get 50% of its electricity generated with renewable energy by the year 2030.

It is necessary to start afresh and build a smart, sustainable city powered by wind and solar with water provided by carbon-free desalination plants according to Defenders of Neom.

Ali Shihabi of Neom's advisory board says that Saudi Arabia needs some creative thinking because the Middle East is running out of water.

Half of Saudi Arabia's water is produced through desalination plants that use fossil fuels to remove salt from water. The process is expensive and the by-product, a mixture of brine and toxic chemicals, is harmful to the marine environment.

The brine will be used as an industrial raw material instead of being dumped into the sea. The only hitch is that using renewable energy with desalination plants has never been successful.

Shihabi admits that Neom is a pilot project, but if we can solve the water problem in the Middle East, everything Neom has done is worthwhile.

Climate experts are concerned that relying on unproven technologies can be a form of climate delay, getting in the way of significant action against the effects of climate change. It is sometimes described as technological optimism.

There are questions about who Neom is for.

The desolate terrain between the Red Sea coast and the mountainous Jordanian border may have been the perfect place to build a mini-state. There are members of the ancient and traditionally nomadic Bedouin Huwaitat tribe living there. The project promises to create jobs and generate wealth in this underdeveloped region, but so far the local population have not seen any benefits.

In order to build a megacity, 20,000 members of the Huwaitat have been forcibly removed from two towns, without adequate compensation.

One man was killed. In April 2020, Abdulrahim al-Huwaiti refused to be evicted from his home in Tabuk and began posting videos online. He was shot by Saudi security forces as he had predicted.

The Saudi embassy's spokesman in Washington DC, Fahad Nazer, disputes the allegations of forced removal of the Huwaitat, although he did not dispute the killing of Mr al-Huwaiti.

Neom's slick public relations efforts, which are part of an effort to attract tourists to the Saudi economy, have opened it to criticism. There are promotional videos that show the glamour of a cosmopolitan city with its own laws and security forces.

Critics say the project will mostly cater to the very rich. Palaces have been built for the royal family. Satellite images show a helipad and a golf course.

Ali Shihabi claims the city will house everyone from labourers to billionaires, although he admits that is not how it has been perceived.

The problem with Neom is that it has failed in its communication strategy.

The journey to a green future has been difficult but we are not avoiding tough choices.

This vision includes Neom. The Saudis are not moving away from fossil fuels.

Manal Shehabi, an Oxford University energy expert, says it would be difficult for a country to stop using oil and gas suddenly.

The Saudis say they are responding to the world's energy needs.

The Saudis and other fossil fuel dependent countries have tried to water down language around international climate commitments.

Saudi Arabia was trying to point out uncertainties, costs, natural impacts, to play down the seriousness of the climate change problem.

This is very much the kind of rhetoric and language that Saudi Arabia has been promoting since the beginning of the climate change negotiations.

Fahad Nazer, the government spokesman, insists that Saudi Arabia is moving towards a green future.

Ali Shihabi invites us to reserve a condo on The Line before anyone else because questions remain about whether Neom will live up to its promises.