Riyadh is traditionally wary of anything that might undermine demand for the vast reserves of oil that have transformed it from a small desert kingdom to a powerful international player, and is currently earning near-record prices for its crude.

"The trend towards moving away from fossil fuel consumption as a means of addressing climate change does not represent a practical alternative to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly given the availability of technologies for energy efficiency and carbon capture and storage," Naimi said.

Many governments and groups such as the International Energy Agency are heavily pushing energy efficiency as a way to start tackling emissions problems with existing technology.

But no commercial-scale projects yet exist for carbon capture and storage, which is supposed to pump emissions from coal-fired power plants underground for long-term storage.

Naimi also criticised fuel taxes that aim to curb consumption in some countries, saying they were part of a system that unfairly favoured coal and largely emissions-free nuclear energy "despite their more adverse pollution and impact on the climate".

Naimi said the world should instead investigate "clean oil", including carbon capture and storage, although he did not explain how it might be possible to capture and then store emissions from the vehicles that consume a large portion of the world's oil.