Riyadh was designated Tuesday, November 28, to host the Universal Expo in 2030. The capital of Saudi Arabia was preferred to Pusan (South Korea) and Rome (Italy) following the vote organized by the International Bureau of exhibitions (BIE).
The Saudi candidacy, the most controversial, boasted “the first carbon negative exposure”, in a country that is nevertheless arid, among the first oil producers in the world and one of the first emitters of greenhouse gases per capita. A week before the outcome of the vote, fifteen human rights NGOs had called on the BIE to “not vote” for Riyadh due to its “terrible” human rights record.
The Universal Exhibition is held every five years and lasts a maximum of six months. They allow the chosen country to “show itself to the world”, while being “a laboratory for architects”, estimated Dimitri Kerkentzes, secretary general of the BIE on TV5Monde in April 2022.
For example, the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris for the Universal Exhibition of 1889, as were the Atomium and the Space Needle, symbolic structures of Brussels and Seattle (United States), were for those of 1958 and 1962. The latest, in Dubai, recorded 24 million visitors. The 2025 event will take place in Osaka, Japan.
More information to come