WHEN I told people I was going to Saudi Arabia to do some reporting, many assumed I was visiting Neom, or some variation on “that weird city in the desert”. I wasn’t. I went to report on a project called , which is researching human adaptation to extreme conditions, such as the brutal heat of the Arabian desert. But I found out plenty about , and some of the other changes afoot in Saudi Arabia, while I was at it.
I first heard about Neom in detail in 2021 at COP26, where its executive director of energy, Jens Madrian, talked about his task of delivering a 100 per cent renewable energy system for the project. Like many people, I had conflated Neom and the futuristic linear city that most of us have heard of, officially called The Line, but they aren’t one and the same. Neom is the overarching concept of several green projects that also include an airport, an industrial complex and, er, a ski resort.
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Madrian described Neom as “the largest green infrastructure project worldwide” and a “living laboratory for the future of urban development, an accelerator of human progress”. The Line, set to be 170 kilometres long, 500 metres tall and just 200 metres wide, is the flagship of the scheme. Work on it started in late 2021.
This vast urban structure, if it ever rises from the sand, will supposedly be zero-carbon and car-free, with transportation set to be provided by a high-speed underground railway. There will be accommodation for 9 million people, which would make it Saudi Arabia’s most populous city and the most densely populated in the world, with 265,000 people per square kilometre.
You have to applaud the sustainability goals, especially in a country enriched and sustained by oil revenues. But what I still don’t understand is why it is being built in a line. One reason given is that it will reduce the impact on nature, but that is arrant nonsense. Linear barriers, such as fences, are a major obstacle for wildlife. A city this long will slice the desert in two.
The Line will also be bad for people. According to a , two citizens of The Line chosen at random would be 57 kilometres apart, compared with 30 or so for a big metropolitan area. The railway will require at least 86 stations, greatly reducing travel speed. Why not build a city-shaped city instead?
Nonetheless, The Line is being built. On the airport shuttle bus, I got chatting to a British engineer on his way to take up a job there. He was unsure what he had let himself in for, but they had offered to quadruple his salary. He signed a nine-year contract.
The Line has been criticised, ridiculed and . I have no idea whether it will ever really see the light of day, but I do think there is some truth to the claim that Saudi Arabia wants to change its ways – to some degree.
Over lunch on my final day in the country, I got talking to a woman who worked for the (she asked not to be named in this piece). She wanted my impressions of her country and how it is viewed in the UK. I told her I was pleasantly surprised, especially by what appear to be better relations between men and women. But I also told her that the UK perception of Saudi isn’t good; most people back home view it as a repressive and vicious theocratic dictatorship hooked on oil and medieval punishments.
Yes, she said – but the improved status for women was a sign of a broader liberalisation of Saudi society over the past few years under the leadership of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. The widely hated religious police, technically the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, had their powers significantly curtailed in 2016 – a statement confirmed by news coverage in the , though I am not sure how independent their reporting is.
I asked her about environmental consciousness among the general population and she said it was improving. The energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud launched the in 2021, pledging that will come from renewables (largely solar power, of course) by 2030 and vowing to hit net zero by 2060.
I knew I was being subjected to part of the charm offensive that this country has been waging for a number of years, and I took it with a pinch of sand. But the evidence of my own eyes suggests that Saudi Arabia is moving in a more progressive direction, especially on the environment.
But it will never be a progressive society. Atheism remains deeply frowned upon, though there are atheists. And those who rule have red lines they will never cross. One is the recognition of LGBTQ+ rights. The other is legalising alcohol. Oh, how I longed for a cold beer with my lunch.
Graham’s week
What I’m watching
Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix.
What I’m reading
. He is my dad.
What I’m working on
A feature about human adaptation to extreme climates.
Graham Lawton is a staff writer at żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ and author of Mustn’t Grumble: The surprising science of everyday ailments. He is the winner of the 2023 PPA Writer of the Year award. You can follow him @grahamlawton
