RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud inaugurated here on Monday the first Middle East Green Initiative Summit.
He also announced a series of regional programs for climate action.
The crown prince revealed during an inaugural remark a regional initiative providing clean energy sources for cooking to more than 750 million people worldwide, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
He also shed light on establishing a fund for investment in sustainable technology solutions in the region.
The total investment in these two initiatives is approximately 39 billion Saudi Riyals (10.4 billion U.S. dollars), and the kingdom will finance approximately 15 percent of the budget.
The kingdom will also work to form a cooperation platform to implement the concept of a circular carbon economy and various centers, including a regional hub for climate change.
He also announced the formation of the Green Initiative Foundation as an independent non-profit entity to support the summit and raise the level of coordination.
During the summit, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressed the need for the world to go further and faster “to combat climate change by the middle of the century.”
In the same context, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan told the summit that climate change is one of humanity’s “biggest crises.”
He highlighted the action Pakistan is taking to combat climate change and emissions, including planting billions of trees and converting coal projects to hydroelectricity ones.
The summit was organized after the first edition of an annual forum of the Saudi Green Initiative held on Sunday.
The event announced introducing the first package of initiatives representing investments worth more than 700 billion Riyals.