From ambition to practice: Evaluating climate-related environmental considerations in the development planning practices of Saudi giga projects

Abstract

Given the severe impacts of anthropogenic climate change on both humans and the natural world, it is imperative that developments integrate climate resilience and environmental stewardship in their development planning practices. This is especially vital for climate vulnerable nations such as Saudi Arabia who has launched a series of giga projects under its national transformation vision to promote long-term resilience. Saudi giga projects are large-scale government-led developments that display unprecedented scale and pace of development aiming to promote sustainable development and economic diversification. This dissertation evaluates the climate-related environmental considerations in the development planning practices of Saudi giga projects through reviewing the Red Sea project and NEOM. The research is informed by the theoretical framework for climate policy integration in large-scale development developed using the theoretical lens of climate policy integration adapted from policy integration literature, local environmental challenges and global best practice to support solution-oriented analysis guided towards informing future development.