I kind of get it, they have newfound wealth that the west couldn't wrestle out of their hands. Not all of the middle east is a desert but a lot of it is, they need to figure out how to make their people prosper without oil (or at least enrich themselves) or else they go back to before. From a humanity continuing to exist perspective it is immoral and criminal, but from a "their countries continuing to exist kind of like today" it makes sense.

It's still bullshit. They have so much money they can find a solution that doesn't doom the planet.
The West aren't really any better, the United States is barely making any changes and those will get rolled back when the next GOP leadership gets installed into power. I don't get why humans have such a hard on to see the world burn.