Weather of Arabia - The Green Saudi Initiative is an ambitious national Saudi initiative that aims primarily to address the effects of climate change and environmental problems, in a way that will benefit future generations and improve the quality of life of citizens.
Launching the Saudi Green Initiative
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, launched the Green Saudi Initiative with the aim of activating the role of all societal bodies, starting from rural and urban communities, all the way to the public sector and civil society organizations, and unifying efforts made towards sustainability and accelerating efforts to combat climate change in the Kingdom.
Objectives of the Saudi Green Initiative
The Saudi Green Initiative supports the Kingdom’s directions and ambition to achieve the goal of zero neutrality by 2060 AD, by adopting the circular carbon economy model, and also works to accelerate the Kingdom’s transition towards a green economy. The Saudi Green Initiative also seeks to achieve three main and ambitious goals:
- Reducing carbon emissions by 278 million tons annually by 2030 AD
- Planting 10 billion trees across the Kingdom over the coming decades, equivalent to rehabilitating 40 million hectares of land
- Protecting 30% of the Kingdom’s terrestrial and marine areas by 2030 AD
Saudi Green Initiative in numbers
- 700 MW of solar and wind power connected to the grid in 2022, providing the capacity to power more than 100,000 homes
- 17 renewable energy projects under development as of 2022 with a total capacity of 13.76 GW
- 18 million trees were planted in addition to 60,000 hectares of land reclaimed in 2022, equivalent to the area of Saint Lucia.
- 100 species of local trees are grown in 62 locations in the Kingdom
- More than 600 million trees will be planted throughout the Kingdom by 2030, including 100 million mangrove trees.
- Through coordinating national efforts, the Kingdom was able to increase the area of its natural reserves by four times its previous area in 2016
- More than 1,200 endangered animals have been resettled in 15 different locations in the Kingdom.
- 600 tons per day is the production volume of the world's largest clean hydrogen project in NEOM by 2026
- 30% of the terrestrial and marine areas in the Kingdom will become nature reserves by 2030 AD, which is equivalent to the area of the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf combined.
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Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince and the Saudi Green Initiative