Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, announced on Monday that Saudi Arabia was committing 2.5 billion dollars to the Middle East Green Initiative for the next ten years.
He made the announcement as he co-chaired with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi the Middle East Green Initiative Summit 2022 at Sharm el-Sheikh, the host of the COP27 UN climate summit.
Crown Prince Mohammed conveyed to the summit gatherers the greetings of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
He added that Saudi Arabia is seeking through the summit to intensify cooperation and coordination to fund such initiatives and find innovative solutions to common challenges.
He stressed that achieving the desired goals of the initiative demands continuous regional cooperation and effective contributions from member-states.
The Middle East Green Initiative was launched by Crown Prince Mohammed last year as part of efforts to reduce regional carbon emissions.
The Middle East Green Initiative aims to reduce carbon emissions from regional hydrocarbon production by more than 60%.
It also plans to plant 50 billion trees across the Middle East and restore an area equivalent to 200 million hectares of degraded land. The initiative will help reduce global carbon levels by 2.5%.
Saudi Arabia plans to rely on renewables for 50% of its electricity generation by 2030, Crown Prince Mohammed said, removing 44 million tons of carbon emissions by 2035.
