This is big: Saudi Arabia, which has an economy that depends on petroleum for 80% of its budget revenues, is now thinking of a world after oil for the first time.

With oil prices near historical lows and momentum building toward the Paris Climate Summit at the end of November, Saudi Arabia is hopping aboard the climate action bandwagon — to an extent, at least.

On Tuesday, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia submitted its climate plan to the United Nations and there's a subtle but very surprising tidbit in it: Saudi Arabia is looking for ways to diversify its economy beyond a reliance on oil and gas.

For a country that depends on oil for 90% of its exports and sits on roughly 16% of the world's oil reserves - a country that has been derisively called a "petro-state" for the power of oil on its economy — that is an enormous change.

Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Ibrahim Naimi speaks to journalists prior to the start of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria last year. Image: Ronald Zak/Associated Press

To understand how big of a deal this is, and what a complete shift it represents, consider what the head of the U.N.'s climate organization, Christiana Figueres, told the New Yorker magazine for a story that ran on August 25 of this year. Of the Saudi negotiators' behavior during past climate talks, when she was a delegate from Costa Rica and not yet chair of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Figueres said:

“They would throw a wrench in here and get out of that room in which the issue was A, then appear over in this other room, in which it was a completely unrelated issue, throw a wrench in there, and disappear,” she told reporter Elizabeth Kolbert. “I would stand there with my mouth open. I would go, These guys are brilliant."

“The Saudis are sitting on a vast reserve of very cheap oil,” she said. “Can you blame them for trying to protect that resource and that income for as long as they can? I don’t blame them. It’s very understandable."

Now it appears, though, that those wrench-throwing days may be over, and the Saudis may have realized they too have a lot to lose from global warming, and that they may have more to gain by joining with other countries to push for the most favorable deal possible in Paris.

A Saudi man walks at the Tadawul Saudi Stock Exchange, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in June when Saudi Arabia's stock market, valued at $585 billion, opened up to direct foreign investment for the first time. Image: Hasan Jamali/Associated Press

Saudi Arabia's commitment

The turnaround comes in a new document filed today. The plan, known as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, or INDC, describes Saudi Arabia's commitments under the new climate agreement, which would enter into force in the year 2020.

In the document, the Saudi Arabian government commits to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 130 million tons of carbon dioxide through 2030, mainly through diversifying its economy away from a sole reliance on oil and gas.

The specific magnitude of the cuts are not nearly as important as the symbolism of the world's dominant OPEC country and longtime climate policy antagonist seemingly aligning itself with the push to rein in global warming pollutants, which mainly come from burning oil and gas.

“This Saudi plan represents the first time that the country has committed itself to act to address climate change," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the World Resources Institute's climate program, in a statement. "It demonstrates that Saudi Arabia understands the impacts of climate change on its people and the role that renewable energy can play in diversifying its economy.”

Saudi Arabia has been, until now, resistant to any commitment to address climate change.

Saudi Arabia has long played the role of a wily spoiler during global climate talks, having helped scuttle and prolong negotiations on numerous provisions during negotiating sessions dating back to at least 1990. That's because the country's main source of revenue comes from oil and gas drilling, which would be threatened by many climate change agreements.

But, with the plummeting price of oil this year, the Gulf nation may have seen that the threat to its economy is already here, climate change agreement or no.

For example, in October, state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco endorsed the U.N.'s 2 degree Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, goal along with several other oil companies, including Statoil, Total and Shell.

Work still ahead

There are many caveats to Saudi Arabia's INDC, however.

For example, the government said its plans depend on continued economic growth, including from oil export revenues.

"It is also premised on the fact that the economic and social consequences of international climate change policies and measures do not pose disproportionate or abnormal burden on the Kingdom’s economy," the INDC states.

In the past, Saudi Arabia has argued that it should be financially compensated for lost oil and gas revenue as a result of a global climate treaty.

That demand is not in the INDC, although the country is asking for technical assistance to help it move away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

The climate plan states:

The implementation of Saudi Arabia’s INDC is not contingent on receiving international financial support, but the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sees an important role for technology cooperation and transfer as well as capacity building for INDC implementation. The government says that it requires "technical assistance and sustained capacity building efforts" to ensure it implements its new plans, and is clearly aligning itself with developing countries that are seeking assistance in their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Saudi Arabia therefore looks for benefiting from all the assistance made available to developing countries.

In the INDC, Saudi Arabia also spells out its vulnerabilities to global warming, such as its susceptibility to sea level rise and heat waves. One recent study also suggested that the country may see more tropical cyclones in a warmer world, much as Yemen was hit by an unprecedented two cyclones within two weeks this month.

"In the long term, a significant share of the infrastructure on the coastlines may be vulnerable to sea level rise. Trade and services may also be vulnerable to heatwaves and sandstorms as well as other indirect vulnerabilities including price volatility in exports and imports of goods and services," the country said in its INDC.

The government touts "ambitious plans" to expand renewable energy use, including solar, as well as implement energy efficiency standards for buildings and transportation. However, it provides no specific targets for this, unlike countries such as China and India.

Saudi Arabia is also aiming to build the world's largest power plant that would capture and reuse carbon dioxide for other purposes, such as for petrochemical production.

This is a different technology than carbon capture and storage plants, which are designed to capture and story carbon dioxide deep underground to prevent the emissions from making it into the atmosphere, where it would warm the climate. Carbon capture and storage technology has yet to be proven at an operational scale.

A huge sandstorm engulfs the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, March 10, 2009. Image: Jad Saab/Associated Press

Some of the shift may be a result of U.S. engagement with the Saudi government, as well as the plunge in oil prices in the past two years.

A September 4 joint statement from a summit meeting between President Obama and Saudi King Salman noted that the two leaders, "... Discussed the challenge of global climate change and agreed to work together to achieve a successful outcome at the Paris negotiations in December."