It was reported in the Northern Echo on Monday 9 December that a sporting campaign group based around Newcastle had heavily criticised the Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NE Combined Authority Mayor Kim McGuinness for trying to “cosy up to a human rights abusing regime” after they visited Saudi Arabia.
It was reported that as part of the visit to Saudi Arabia, the government had signed a deal to “share expertise in culture, heritage, and tourism”. It was also said that Britain and the Saudis would work to set up an ”international institute for clean hydrogen, backed by a consortium of universities, including Newcastle University.”
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness was reported as praising the trip to the Gulf with the Prime Minister as an opportunity the region “has never had before” and saying: “The North East has never before had an opportunity like this to stand tall on the world stage.”
Response from NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing (NUFCFAS)
In response, John Hird, a spokesperson for NUFCFAS, was reported as saying: “In three years of Saudi state ownership of our club local politicians have unfortunately been falling over themselves to cosy up to the human rights abusing regime, while Newcastle’s reputation gets dragged through the mud, it’s also not been clear what the benefits are.
So what is going on here and what should people in the North East think?
Hydrogen and COP 29
Firstly, let’s look at the environmental issues here. In February 2024, Claire Coutinho MP, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero in the then Tory government, was quoted on the government website as saying: “We are now entering a period of unprecedented growth for the UK hydrogen economy… the UK is a world leading place to invest in hydrogen.”
There can be no doubt that the development of hydrogen technology can play a crucial role in helping to get us to Net Zero Carbon. It has been argued that hydrogen is a “highly versatile energy vector, which means it can be produced, transported, and stored as a means of delivering and/or storing energy.” Consequently, hydrogen can be used in the future in many hard-to-decarbonise sectors where other energy vectors, such as electricity, may not be suitable.
So far, so good. However, in the struggle to get to Net Zero, often things are not quite what they seem and it has also been argued that, “hydrogen is mostly used within the chemicals industry and almost 100% of its energy source comes from fossil fuels (mostly natural gas and coal). Consequently, hydrogen is responsible for 900 MtCO2, which is 2.5% of global CO2 emissions in energy and industry or the CO2 emissions of Brazil and the United Kingdom combined.” It has also been noted that the present day snapshot of hydrogen is far from green, because of its reliance on fossil fuels. Its decarbonisation potential will only come about after a rapid shift to low carbon production
Meanwhile, with regards to the recent COP29, it was reported in the Guardian that a Saudi Arabian delegate had been accused of directly making changes to an official Cop29 negotiating text. It was said that, “oil-rich Saudi Arabia is regarded by many as a persistent obstructor of action at UN climate summits to cut the burning of fossil fuels and has been described as a “wrecking ball” at Cop29.”
So, will the people in the North East and across the world really benefit from this investment? Will it really be about helping to end the use of fossil fuels and combating climate change?
And will the investment take place anyway?
Lack of Saudi investment
It would be understandable if people in the North East were to raise their eyebrows at the talk of Saudi investment in the region. It has already been well documented that while the Saudis promised a lot of investment in Newcastle and the North East, when they took over Newcastle United as majority owners in October 2021, it was noted in October this year that “three years on from the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United, the promised investment in the city has failed to materialise.” Just how serious are the Saudis about actually investing in Newcastle and the North East and so benefiting the people of the region?
Human Rights Watch report
Other questions have been raised about Saudi investments. On 20 November Human Rights Watch published a devastating report into the actions of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, who are the majority owners of Newcastle United. The report found that “investments which seek to garner uncritical foreign support for MBS’s agenda, spread disinformation about the country’s rights record, neutralise scrutiny, silence critics, and undermine institutions seeking transparency and accountability.”
News from Saudi Arabia
On 9 December, the day before Human Rights Day and the very day that Keir Starmer and Kim McGuinness were in Saudi Arabia, there was a tweet on X from one of the sisters of Maryam al-Otaibi. Another of the al-Otaibi sisters, Manahel, was sentenced to 11 years in prison earlier this year for wearing western clothing and promoting women’s rights
Manahel and Maryam’s sister said on X https://x.com/ahxmousa/status/1866224181974892654/ that “today, I was deeply shocked to know that Saudi authorities summoned my elder sister, Maryam Al-Otaibi”
Maryam and Manahel’s sister also talks of there being ”serious questions about the credibility of international organizations that continue to grant legitimacy to authoritarian regimes that perpetuate these violations. The international community must confront this complicity and ensure that sports are not used as a tool to whitewash human rights abuses”.
Questions to answer
So, what are we to make of all this? There was a time when we in the North East were the cradle of the first industrial revolution, for all the good and not so good consequences of that event. A time when the North East was the crucible of so many inventions, which took humanity forward, from the railways to the light bulb, from the world’s first major turbines to the first hydraulic cranes, to name just a few.
We desperately need new investment in the region. Our young people need good well paid jobs, particularly in the new green industries of the future. However, should we not be careful about where we get our investment from and what exactly the investment is in? Shouldn’t we investing in ways which encourage human rights and from people we can trust to do as they say they are going to? And shouldn’t our green investment be in sustainable energy schemes, which are controlled and owned by the people of the North East and which do not promote the further use of fossil fuels?
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