“My personal preference is if we could do it by 2040 or 2045 [but] we don’t want to make a commitment that we cannot deliver,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the audience at MENA Climate Week in Riyadh.

“We believe we can achieve it by 2060 or earlier and that’s why in the Paris Agreement we were clear with everybody that we have a baseline and that baseline will determine how we can progress with our economic diversity,” he added.

While Riyadh is currently targets a 2060 deadline for net-zero emissions, state oil company Saudi Aramco is in line with most global ambitions and intends to reach its goal by 2050.