Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is leading a huge project called Neom, which is planned to be a futuristic city with zero pollution. The city aims to be very modern and environmental friendly. However, a climate expert involved in the project has raised concerns that building Neom could change the local weather and cause problems with wind and sand storms in the region.

Donald Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Illinois, is working as an adviser for Neom. He told the Financial Times that The Line- the main part of Neom might affect the climate. The Line is planned to be a very long city, stretching 170 kilometres, inside two giant skyscrapers that would be taller than the Empire State Building.

The project is very expensive, costing about $500 billion, and it has faced delays and rising costs because it is difficult to build. The original plan was to complete 16 kilometres of The Line by 2030. But now, the builders have reduced this goal to 2.4 kilometres, and only a small section including a stadium is expected to be ready by 2034.
One of the main challenges is the height of the buildings, which are planned to be 1,640 feet tall. This makes construction complicated and costly. Some officials suggested lowering the buildings to 1,000 feet to save money.

However, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rejected this idea and wanted to keep the buildings tall, asking developers to find savings in other areas.While Neom is an exciting and ambitious project, it is facing many challenges with costs, construction, and possible environmental impacts.