Crown Prince announces regional centers, CCE investment fund at Middle East Green Initiative Summit

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched today, Oct. 25, the Middle East Green Initiative Summit.
 

In his opening speech to the summit, the Crown Prince said the event aims to coordinate efforts to protect environment and face climate change to set a roadmap aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the region by more than 10% of global contributions.
 

He added that the summit also aims to plant 50 billion trees in the region, as part of the world's largest afforestation program, as well as contribute to achieve 5% of the global afforestation target.
 

In addition, the event aims to introduce a regional roadmap and methodology to achieve these ambitious targets.
 

The Kingdom believes that traditional energy sources were the primary reason for the transformation underwent by the regional and global countries from traditional agricultural economies to globally active economies and the catalyst towards the fastest economic growth ever known to mankind.

“Today, we are ushering in a new green era for the region; in which we are collectively leading and reaping its fruits, in our joint belief that the effects of climate change are not limited to the natural environment only, but also to the economy and security of our nations," the Crown Prince said.
 

“Despite that, we believe that climate change is an economic opportunity for our citizens and the private sector, which, stimulated by the Middle East Green Initiative, will create quality jobs and encourage innovation in the region,” he added.

The Kingdom will develop a cooperative platform to accelerate the implementation of the circular carbon economy (CCE), a global center for carbon extraction use and storage, a regional center for early storm warning, a regional center for sustainable development of fisheries, a regional cloud seeding program, and a regional investment fund for the circular carbon economy.

These centers and programs will play a major role in creating the necessary infrastructure to protect the environment, reduce emissions and raise the level of regional coordination.

The Kingdom announced a regional initiative providing clean energy sources for cooking to more than 750 million people worldwide and establishing a fund for investment in sustainable technology solutions in the region. The total investment in these two initiatives is approximately SAR 39 billion and the Kingdom will contribute to financing approximately 15% of this total.

The summit called for intensifying coordination and joint action to preserve and develop the importance of the environment and vegetation cover in Africa, in addition to establishing the Green Initiative Foundation as an independent non-profit entity to support the summit and raise the level of coordination.