2024-03-22 01:52:33
The era of “Green Saudi Arabia”… a more sustainable future for future generations
“Saudi Green Initiative Day,” on March 27 of each year, embodies a national occasion that celebrates the launch of the initiative on the same day in 2021, passing through the achievements made by the Kingdom in the field of climate action, consolidating environmental issues locally and internationally, and highlighting the importance of Consolidating and unifying community efforts to achieve a more sustainable future for all.
In the session, which was held under the chairmanship of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, on Tuesday, in Jeddah, the Saudi Council of Ministers approved setting March 27 of each year as an official day for the “Saudi Green Initiative.”
The “Green Saudi Arabia Initiative” represents the inspiring vision of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for “Green Saudi Arabia,” to confront the challenges of climate change, improve the quality of life, protect the environment, and advance sustainable innovation for the benefit of future generations.
Efforts to reclaim degraded lands contribute mainly to combating desertification and developing vegetation (Middle East)
Leading role
Riyadh plays a pioneering role in reducing the effects of climate change and carbon emissions. Given its rich resources and experience in managing global energy stability, the Kingdom is qualified to lead a new era of climate action and contribute significantly to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Minister of Energy, stressed, during the meeting of Arab ministers concerned with climate affairs in Riyadh last October, that responding to the challenges of climate change is a shared responsibility among all, with different responsibilities between developed and developing countries, according to international agreements, due to their historical responsibility. About emissions, explaining that each region has its own circumstances that require different means and implementation mechanisms to deal with this challenge, stressing the importance of 4 axes, which are: adaptation, mitigation, financing, and global inventory.
He stressed the vital role of young men and women in responding to the challenges of climate change, to develop new solutions and innovations, stressing the need to encourage and empower them to participate actively in decision-making.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman during the meeting of Arab ministers concerned with climate affairs last October (SPA)
Interesting anchoring
Abdul Rahman Al-Fadhli, the Saudi Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, confirmed, through his personal account on the “X” platform, that the Council of Ministers’ allocation of an annual day for the “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative represents a consolidation of the leadership’s interest in environmental issues locally and internationally, and in support of the Kingdom’s approach to leading the green era, and ensuring a future. More sustainable for future generations.
For his part, Majed Al-Hogail, Minister of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing in Saudi Arabia, said: “A new national occasion… through which we, the Saudis, will share our achievements that we have worked to implement to achieve the goals of the (Green Saudi Arabia) initiative… and we will continue our journey to enhance the prosperity of our cities and raise the level of quality.” Life in it.” He added, through his account on “X”: “Our ambitions are great.” We are always capable of achieving them.”
Saudi Arabia is making great efforts to preserve wildlife (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Multiple initiatives
Dr. Fahd Abdul Karim Turkestani, Chairman of the Environment Committee of the World Federation of Muslim Scouts, in his speech to Asharq Al-Awsat, described the impact of climate change on the general economy and local economic initiatives as significant and multi-faceted, noting that the Kingdom has provided innovative solutions to confront the challenges, through two initiatives. “Green Saudi Arabia” and “Green Middle East”.
He stressed that the “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative to preserve the environment and promote sustainable development has achieved many positive results, including increasing environmental awareness. It contributed to increasing the use of renewable energy, improving water resources management and achieving environmental sustainability, and it is expected that the initiative will continue to achieve more positive results in the near future. He also stated that the initiative worked to increase awareness among society, by making people aware of the impact of environmental pollution and climate change and the importance of using renewable energy, in addition to increasing the green area due to the efficiency of trees in absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, in addition to increasing the use of solar, wind and thermal energy to reduce Relying on fossil fuels and reducing carbon emissions, in addition to modern irrigation techniques, improving water use efficiency in various sectors, implementing sustainable development projects, improving management of natural areas, and preserving biodiversity.
Efforts to reclaim degraded lands contribute to combating desertification and developing vegetation (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia has taken significant steps to build a more sustainable future since the launch of “Vision 2030” in 2016. It has supported the “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative since its launch in 2021, working to enhance environmental protection efforts and accelerate the energy transition journey and sustainability programs to achieve its comprehensive goals in the field of offsetting and reducing carbon emissions. Increasing afforestation, land reclamation and protection of land and sea areas in the Kingdom.
The Saudi initiative represents one of the largest reforestation initiatives in the world, and supports Riyadh’s ambitions to achieve zero neutrality by 2060 by adopting the circular carbon economy model. It also works to accelerate the Kingdom’s transition towards a green economy.
The “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative implements a sustainable plan guided by 3 comprehensive goals, which are reducing carbon emissions, afforestation, land reclamation, protecting terrestrial and marine areas, and contributing to achieving climate goals through the implementation of more than 80 initiatives in the public and private sectors, with investments worth more than $188 billion (705 billion riyals) to build a more sustainable future for all.
Saudi Arabia has succeeded in accelerating its efforts in the field of climate action, by converting 30 percent of its land and sea areas into natural reserves, and planting more than 600 million trees, an increase of 150 million trees over the interim goal announced in 2021 to plant 450 million trees by 2030.
Dr. Fahd Turkestani (Middle East)
unifying efforts
The initiative is responsible for supervising all of the Kingdom’s efforts and unifying them to combat climate change under one umbrella that supports opportunities for cooperation and innovation, and promotes the green economy.
Saudi Arabia is moving steadily towards achieving its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 278 million tons annually and reaching the optimal energy mix for electricity production of approximately 50 percent for natural gas and 50 percent for renewable energy by 2030. This will contribute to replacing up to Million barrels of liquid fuel equivalent currently used. Saudi Arabia has also launched a number of projects aimed at reducing dependence on liquid fuels and replacing them with gas to generate electricity, as it has operated 4 highly efficient gas-powered plants to generate electricity with a total capacity of approximately 5,600 megawatts since last December.
Riyadh continues to work on developing future fuel types through a project to establish the largest green hydrogen production plant in the world in the city of NEOM, with a total investment of $8.4 billion, and signing partnerships to cooperate in the field of producing clean and green hydrogen in the Kingdom and exporting it.
The “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative is keen to employ advanced technologies (Middle East)
10 billion trees
Since its launch, the “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative has succeeded in planting 43.9 million trees and reclaiming 94,000 hectares of land across the Kingdom. This progress contributes to achieving the goal of planting 10 billion trees over the coming decades within a strategic plan designed to develop vegetation in all natural habitat areas. Cities, highways, and green spaces.
Work is currently underway to implement more than 40 initiatives that support the interim goal of planting more than 600 million trees and reclaiming 8 million hectares of land by 2030.
Protecting the Kingdom’s natural environments constitutes an essential pillar for achieving the goal of the “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative (Middle East)
Last October, Saudi Arabia revealed a detailed feasibility study to develop vegetation in various parts of the country, and began implementing afforestation and land reclamation projects in a number of locations, including mangrove forests, swamps, mountain forests, pastures, national parks, and valleys.
Efforts to rehabilitate natural environments will contribute to providing job opportunities, combating desertification and sand encroachment, reducing the negative effects of sandstorms, and improving the quality of life for the Kingdom’s residents. City centers will also benefit from increasing tree density, which will contribute to lowering temperatures and improving air quality.
Employing technologies and the latest devices to work to achieve the goals of the “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative (Middle East)
Protected areas
The “Green Saudi Arabia” initiative worked to restore and protect environmental and natural systems, and support the prosperity of plant and animal species, which contributed to enhancing the beauty of nature in various parts of the Kingdom, while work is underway to implement 5 initiatives that will contribute to increasing the percentage of protected wild areas to more than 21 percent. Increasing the percentage of marine protected areas to more than 26 percent of the total area of the Kingdom by 2030.
Since the launch of the initiative, 1,669 endangered animals, such as the Arabian oryx, sand gazelle, and ibex, have been resettled in nature reserves in the Kingdom, where these animals help enhance biodiversity.
“International Arabian Tiger Day” is an initiative between the Al-Ula Authority, the Kingdom’s delegation to the United Nations, and the Arab Tiger Fund (Asharq Al-Awsat)
In 2023, the Kingdom witnessed the birth of 7 Arabian leopard cubs within the framework of the program to propagate and protect endangered species in Taif Governorate, bringing the total number of Arabian leopards to 27 tigers, thus doubling their number since the start of the “Royal Commission” project on the Arabian leopard in 2020.
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