In addition to your cynicism about Saudi Arabia's "net zero" pledge, which is well placed, it should also be noted that it only applies to its own fossil fuel burning - what its customers choose to do with the oil it pumps and sells is their problem. So it'll use solar/nuclear/offsets to extract the fossil fuels and get credit for being "net zero" without actually reducing the carbon impact of their main business. I'd expect Exxon Mobil and other western oil companies to announce something similar soon if they haven't yet.
In addition to your cynicism about Saudi Arabia's "net zero" pledge, which is well placed, it should also be noted that it only applies to its own fossil fuel burning - what its customers choose to do with the oil it pumps and sells is their problem. So it'll use solar/nuclear/offsets to extract the fossil fuels and get credit for being "net zero" without actually reducing the carbon impact of their main business. I'd expect Exxon Mobil and other western oil companies to announce something similar soon if they haven't yet.
Matt Levine had an even more cynical take on this in his newsletter today: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-10-26/elon-musk-had-a-good-day (bloomberg paywall but the e-mail is free if you sign up)