Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Supreme Committee for Green Saudi Arabia Chairman HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has announced two key initiatives worth around SR39 billion ($10.3 billion) - for funding the circular carbon economy technology solutions for the region and also providing clean fuel to help feed 750 million people worldwide - at the inaugural Middle East Green Inititaive Summit. 
 
This comes in continuance of Saudi Arabia’s leading role in the development of global energy markets. The kingdom will contribute to roughly 15% in funding.
 
Calling for joint global action, Prince Mohamamed said: "We must join forces and coordinate our efforts to protect the environment, confront climate change, and develop a roadmap towards reducing carbon emissions in the region by more than (10%) of global contribution, and plant (50) billion trees in the region, though the largest tree-planting program globally, this will contribute to achieving (5%) of the global target for afforestation."
 
"Today, in the first edition of this summit, we aim to work together to develop a regional roadmap and a framework to enable the achievement of these ambitious targets," he added.
 
Saudi Arabia 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," noted Prince Mohammed.
 
"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.
 
Prince Mohammed said as part of its green initiatives strategy, the kingdom is also planning to set up a co-operative platform to implement the concepts of circular carbon economy (CCE) in addition to a regional hub for climate change and a regional centre for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) 
 
Also plans are afoot to develop a regional centre for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), a regional centre for early warning of storms; a regional centre for sustainable development of fisheries; and a regional cloud seeding programme. 
 
These centres and programmes will play a major role in establishing the necessary infrastructure to protect the environment, reduce emissions and raise the level of regional coordination.
 
This is mainly aimed at fixing the gaps in the regional climate action system through coordinating regional efforts and sharing experiences and technologies, he added.-TradeArabia News Service