Beginning of Green Era

Why in news?

Recently, Saudi Arabia has launched the Saudi Green Initiative and Middle East Green Initiative to combat climate change.

Why it was announced now?

In the G20 summit presided by Saudi Arabia, one of the main pillars of the agenda was safeguarding the planet.
The summit highlighted how climate change had negatively impacted the planet, people’s lives and their well-being.
Initiatives like establishing a Global Coral Reef Research and Development Accelerator Platform was announced in the summit.
G20 leaders also acknowledged the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) Platform as a tool towards affordable, reliable, and secure energy and economic growth.
Saudi Arabia committed to lead regional efforts to address climate change and is making steady progress in this direction.

What is the initiative all about?

Saudi Green Initiative aims to raise the vegetation cover, reduce carbon emissions, combat pollution, land degradation and preserve marine life.
As part of the initiative, 10 billion trees will be planted which reduces carbon emissions by more than 4% of global contributions.
This will be made through a renewable energy programme that will generate 50% of Saudi’s energy from renewables by 2030.
It is also working towards raising the percentage of its protected areas to more than 30% of its total land area, exceeding the global target of 17%.
As part of the Middle East Green initiative, it will work with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and regional partners to plant an additional 40 billion trees in the West Asian region.
It represents 5% of the global target of planting one trillion trees and can reduce 2.5% of global carbon levels.
Saudi Arabia will share its expertise and know-how with its neighbouring countries to reduce carbon emissions resulting from hydrocarbon production in the region by 60% and globally by 10%.

What are the benefits of this initiative?

Saudi Arabia currently operates the largest carbon capture and utilisation plant in the world, turning half a million tonnes of CO2 annually into products such as fertilizers and methanol.
It also operates one of the region’s most advanced CO2-enhanced oil recovery plants that captures and stores 8,00,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
It believes that nature-based solutions will play an important role in removing carbon as part of the CCE.
Earlier it joined International Solar Alliance to promote cooperation in the renewable energy sector.
To ensure momentum and continuity, it proposes to convene an annual summit called the Middle East Green Initiative.
The aim is start implementing the plan in the fourth quarter of this year and continue for the next two decades.
It also recognised the scarcity of financial resources to irrigate the terrain.
Therefore, in partnership with participating countries, it aims to research innovative methods.
This includes irrigation from treated water, cloud seeding and other purpose-driven solutions such as planting native trees.

How it will help Vision 2030 plan?

In 2016, Saudi Arabia unveiled Vision 2030, a comprehensive road map to improve the quality of life of the citizens of the country.
As part of this, Saudi Arabia carried out a comprehensive restructuring of the environmental sector and established the Environmental Special Forces in 2019.
With NEOM and The Line, Saudi Arabia has already redefined the idea of sustainable habitats.
Recently Public Investment Fund pumped in $15 billion in the NEOM project and another $10 billion in renewable and solar energy projects.
This will realise the Saudi Arabia’s goal of Vision 2030 and become one of the major producers of renewable energy with a capacity to generate 9.5 GW by 2023.

Source: The Hindu