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As one of the world's largest producer, supplier, consumer, and subsidizer of fossil fuels, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia, Kingdom) was flagged as one of the major contributors to global climate change. To counter the same, Saudi Arabia worked tirelessly to minimize its carbon footprint and harness renewable energy and, in November 2015, the Kingdom pledged to achieve mitigation co-benefits of a minimum of 130 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year by 2030 at the Paris Climate Agreement - a global deal to fight the climate crisis. Thereafter, the Saudi Government's Vision 2030, launched in early 2016 by the Crown Prince, His Royal Highness Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud (HRH MBS), outlined various ambitious programs to increase the contribution of renewable energy to the region's energy mix, to include solar and wind power. As part of Vision 2030, the National Renewable Energy Program aimed for 3.45 gigawatts (GW) of installed renewable capacity by 2020 and 9.5 GW by 2023 (10% of the country's total power generation capacity). As part of its long-term plans, Saudi Arabia planned to produce 70% of its power from natural gas and 30% from renewables and other sources (mainly nuclear power) by 2030. On that note, the government issued several tenders to regional and international companies to commission renewable energy projects as the Kingdom sought to diversify its energy portfolio. But despite being the GCC's largest energy market and one of the largest markets for renewables, Saudi Arabia was still criticized for neglecting the battle against climate change. Moreover, the Kingdom also faced other challenges such as the lack of awareness among locals or the high up-front costs and high costs of retrofits which. It had to contend with. Given Saudi Arabia's immense potential owing to its market size, green energy experts and environmentalist wondered whether Saudi Arabia would be able to champion the fight against climate change and establish its 'green' presence in the MENA region.