[danans]

I think that the point is that it reveals that Saudi's renewable energy initiatives [1] are just green-washing. The undercover reporting reveals clearly that their singular objective is increasing and prolonging demand for oil and natural gas.

1. https://powersaudiarabia.com.sa/web/index.html

[The_Colonel]

Why can't they earnestly pursue both?

I mean, they might have realized that oil will eventually stop making current levels of profits, and thus they want to diversify.

But that doesn't mean they don't want to postpone this moment as far as possible into the future.

[SamBam]

Because "greenwashing" refers to the Saudi's attempts to say that what they're doing is for ecological, climate reasons.

You're right, they are earnestly pursuing both, for exactly the reasons you describe: pure profit.

But Saudi Arabia has implied that they are pursuing green tech for environmental reasons, which is absolutely antithetical to the stance of "let's burn every single drop of oil we can before it stops being profitable."

[danans]

Because their plan to:

"... lobby against government subsidies for electric vehicles in countries around the world."

invalidates the claims they have made to be earnestly pursuing renewables. Personal transportation is a huge consumer of nonrenewable energy today, and EVs are the shortest path to transitioning personal transportation to renewable energy.

[barryrandall]

They might be earnestly pursuing both, but actively worsening the problem undermines their credibility in conversations about solutions.