Saudi Arabia Accelerates Steps to Activate Green Middle East Initiative

Gulf

March 31st, 5:51am

Riyadh - Saleh al-Zaid

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. (SPA file photo)

As soon as Saudi Arabia announced its Green Middle East Initiative, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, held talks with a number of the region’s leaders, who underlined the importance of achieving the goals of the environmental project and praised its impact on their countries and residents. The Green Middle East Initiative - announced by the Crown Prince on Saturday - is the largest afforestation program in the world, which seeks to confront environmental challenges in the region and improve the quality of life and public health. The project aims to raise the percentage of protected areas to more than 30 percent of the land, thus surpassing the current global target of 17 percent in each country. It also seeks to plant 50 billion trees, enhance the efficiency of oil production and boost the contribution of renewable energy. Moreover, the Saudi initiative will involve multiple efforts to preserve marine and coastal environment and increase the proportion of natural reserves. Crown Prince Mohammed held phone calls with regional leaders, who emphasized their support and readiness to work for the implementation of the initiative’s goals. Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah praised the Saudi efforts to protect the environment and emphasized his country’s willingness to work with the Kingdom to achieve the goals of the initiative. Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa thanked the Crown Prince for the initiative, and stressed Manama’s readiness to support all efforts in this regard. King Abdullah II of Jordan welcomed the environmental project and expressed his country’s readiness to cooperate with the Kingdom to achieve the desired goals, while Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said that Iraq would stand with Saudi Arabia to achieve what is best for the region. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman both expressed their appreciation and support for the Saudi initiative during two separate phone calls with Crown Prince Mohammed. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, underlined the importance of the initiative in confronting environmental challenges in the region and world.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2891656/saudi-arabia-accelerates-steps-activate-green-middle-east-initiative