Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman announced on Monday that the Kingdom will commit $2.5 billion for the Middle East Green Initiative over the next 10 years.
He also said during the second edition of the summit of the Green Middle East Initiative held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh, on the sidelines of the COP 27 conference, that Saudi Arabia seeks to make 50 percent of its electrical consumption reliant on renewable sources by 2030.
He added that the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) aims to reach zero-neutrality by 2050.
This year’s Middle East Green Initiative summit is co-chaired by the Saudi Crown Prince and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The Saudi Crown Prince announced that as part of Saudi Arabia’s national emission reduction targets, and the implementation of the Circular Carbon Economy approach, the Kingdom will deploy of one of the largest Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) hubs in the world. This will capture 44 million tons of CO2e, equivalent to 15 percent of the Kingdom’s current NDC, by 2035.
In addition, the Kingdom’s second goal under MGI is to plant 50 billion trees across the region. This ambitious project will rehabilitate 200 million hectares of degraded land, helping reduce emissions by 2.5 percent of current global levels, according to state news agency SPA.