Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was hosting the summit, which was being held in conjunction with the ongoing COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. (SPA)
Sharm el-Sheikh: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Monday that Saudi Arabia will give $2.5 billion to the Middle East Green Initiative over the next 10 years and host its headquarters in the Kingdom.
The Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, will also aim for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the crown prince said in front of world leaders gathered for the COP27 climate change conference in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
The Middle East Green Initiative was launched last year by the Crown Prince with the aim of reducing carbon emissions from regional hydrocarbon production by more than 60 percent.
It aims to plant 50 billion trees across the Middle East and restore an area equivalent to 200 million hectares of land. After this, the global carbon level will come down by 2.5 percent.
The Crown Prince said Saudi Arabia plans to rely on renewable energy for 50 percent of its electricity generation by 2030, adding that by 2035 we will remove 44 million tons of carbon emissions.
We also need regional cooperation and the effective contribution of member states to reach the desired goals of the Middle East Green Initiative, he said.
Saudi Arabia said last year that it aimed to contribute 15 percent of the $10.4 billion needed for the fund's clean energy projects.
Source: Arab News