The Saudi Green Initiatives and the Green Middle East Initiatives stem from the Kingdom’s pioneering role towards common international issues, and as a continuation of its efforts to protect the planet, and it is a product of the Crown Prince’s move to protect nature, people, and the earth, enlightened by the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and this green Saudi movement did not neglect to achieve quantum leaps. In the military, political, economic, technological, health and educational fields.
And the Crown Prince had announced that the “Saudi Green Initiative” and the “Green Middle East Initiative” would draw the direction of the Kingdom and the region in protecting land and nature and put it in a road map with clear and ambitious landmarks, and would contribute strongly to achieving global goals.
Regarding the environment and climate and their protection, the Crown Prince believes that the Kingdom and the region are facing many environmental challenges, such as desertification, which constitutes an economic threat to the region, and air pollution from greenhouse gases is estimated to have reduced the average life of citizens by an average of one and a half years. Green Saudi Arabia aims to raise vegetation cover, reduce carbon emissions, combat pollution and land degradation, and preserve marine life by planting 10 billion trees in the Kingdom over the coming decades, equivalent to rehabilitating about 40 million hectares of degraded land. It will also work to raise the proportion of protected areas to More than 30% of its land area, which is estimated at 600,000 square kilometers, exceeding the current global target of protecting 17% of the lands of each country, in addition to a number of initiatives to protect the marine and coastal environment.
And the crown prince asserts that Saudi Arabia is determined to make a lasting global impact. And based on its pioneering role, it will start work on the Green Middle East initiative by planting an additional 40 billion trees in the Middle East, indicating that the program aims to plant 50 billion trees, which is the largest reforestation program in the world, which is twice the size of the Great Green Wall in the Sahel region (the second largest initiative regions of this kind), restoring an area equivalent to 200 million hectares of degraded land, which represents 5% of the global target for planting one trillion trees, and achieves a 2.5% reduction in global carbon levels.
Okaz (Jeddah) @okaz_online
