RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince launched a Middle East Green Initiative which aims to secure 39 billion riyals ($10.4 billion) for an investment fund and clean energy project as part of efforts to reduce regional carbon emissions.
Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman said the kingdom, which is the world’s top oil exporter, would contribute 15% of the funds and would work with other states and development funds on the funding and execution of the initiatives.
“Today we are initiating a green era for the area, believing that these changes are not only for the environment but also for the economy and security,” he told heads of state and other senior officials at the Middle East Green Initiative Summit in Riyadh.
“As part of the kingdom’s leading role in developing energy markets, it will work to establish an investment fund for carbon circular economy solutions in the region and an initiative to offer clean energy solutions to help feed more than 750 million people worldwide,” he said
When plans for the Middle East Green Initiative were first announced in March, the prince said it aimed to reduce carbon emissions in the region’s hydrocarbon industry by 60% and reverse desertification in one of world’s most water-stressed regions by planting billions of trees.
No investment figure was provided for the Middle East Green Initiative. Saudi Arabia has said its own Saudi Green Initiative programme would involve investments of over 700 billion riyals ($190 billion) by 2030.
The event – attended by US President Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry and several heads of state and governments – comes ahead of COP26, the UN conference in Glasgow which hopes to agree deeper global emissions cuts to tackle global warming.
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Kerry said the private sector has to step in to help governments achieve emission targets, adding carbon emissions are not about politics or ideologies, but “about science”.
On Saturday, Prince Muhammad pledged that Saudi Arabia would reach “net zero” emissions by 2060. Fellow Gulf state Bahrain has pledged the same and the United Arab Emirates has said it would do so by 2050. Emissions are mostly produced by burning fossil fuels and achieving net zero means a country emits no more greenhouse gases than it can capture or absorb.
Saudi Arabia would help create the necessary infrastructure by working to establish a regional carbon capture and storage centre, a regional early storm warning centre, a regional cloud seeding programme, and a hub for climate change.
Saudi Arabia also said it would join a global effort to cut emissions of methane — another planet-warming gas — by 30 percent by 2030, while Aramco committed to being a carbon net zero enterprise by 2050.
The United Nations says more than 130 countries have set or are considering a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by mid-century, an objective it says is “imperative” to safeguard a liveable climate.
