Saudi Arabia to launch initiatives to better the environmental conditions and to confront climate change. The Kingdom's Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Bin Salman announced the Saudi Arabia Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative aimed at achieving global targets to overcome the climate crisis and pave the way towards a green era.
While unveiling the initiatives, Mohamed Bin Salman stated that Saudi Arabia and the MENA have currently inclined to many environmental challenges mainly desertification, which is also an economic threat to the region. An estimate of 13Bn dollars is exhausted every year because of profound sandstorms in the region and that air pollution from greenhouse gases is approximated to have reduced the average life of citizens by a year and a half, he added.
The Green Saudi Initiative will work to raise vegetation cover, reduce carbon emissions, combat pollution and land degradation and preserve marine life. As part of the sustainable programme, 10 billion trees will be planted within decades, which is equal to naturalizing about 40M hectares of sullied lands. The project is expected to increase the green by 12 times and to be twofold of the Great Green Wall, a major afforestation initiative in the African region to tackle the swelling desertification.
"As a leading global producer of oil, we are fully aware of our share of the responsibility in advancing the fight against the climate crisis, and as our pioneering role in stabilising energy markets during the oil and gas era, we will act to lead the next green era," said the Crown Prince.
By 2030, more than 4 percent of global carbon emissions will be reduced through renewable energy projects that will provide 50 percent of electricity production in the Kingdom under the Saudi Green Initiative. With the help of clean hydrocarbon technologies, Saudi Arabia aims to eliminate more than 130 million tons of carbon emissions, in addition to raising the percentage of waste diversion from landfills to 94 percent, MBS further added.
The Middle East Green Initiative will be initiated in coordination with the GCC states and Middle Eastern countries to plant an additional 40 billion trees in the Middle East so as to make a lasting global impact.
The Arab league lauded the initiatives stating that the Kingdom is a pioneer in addressing international issues and that environmental concerns put forth by the initiatives are all important priorities on the global agenda in the next phase.