How Saudi oil scientists ended up working on the world’s most important climate reports

Gas fires light the sky at a Saudi Aramco plant in Ras Tanura. Photograph: Thomas J Abercrombie/National Geographic/Getty Images

On her first day as an expert author on the world’s most important climate reports, Prof Julia Steinberger knew nobody else, so she sat down at a stranger’s table for breakfast.

“Hi, I’m Julia. I’m from the University of Lausanne,” she said. The man across the table replied: “I’m Mustafa Babiker. I work with Saudi Aramco.”