How the Saudi Green Initiative has moved from ambition to action, two years on

As a part of the Saudi Green Initiative, the Kingdom aims to plant 10 billion trees. (Supplied)
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Updated 29 March 2023
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How the Saudi Green Initiative has moved from ambition to action, two years on

  • Two-year anniversary of SGI’s launch seen as a milestone on the path to a sustainable future
  • The anniversary is being celebrated as a whole-of-society effort to usher in a greener future

JEDDAH: When one thinks of Saudi Arabia, one imagines scenes of rolling sand dunes as far as the eye can see — a vision not far from the truth in some of the more remote corners of the peninsula.

Looking closer at this vast landscape and its sprawling urban areas, however, many would be surprised by the vast green spaces now changing the face of the Kingdom, from dense forests to lush city parks.

Two years ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched one of the world’s most significant climate initiatives, which set out to enhance the quality of life while integrating environmental protection, energy transition and sustainability programs.




Green cover of Riyadh. (RCRC)

Celebrating its second anniversary, the Saudi Green Initiative, an ambitious multi-entity collaboration, has already reached several important milestones since its launch.

It has made a significant dent in its target of planting 10 billion trees across Saudi Arabia, chalking up 18 million to date.

Of the 40 million hectares of degraded land it aims to rehabilitate, 60,000 hectares have been restored, while more than 60 sites have been set aside for the sustainable planting of trees across the Kingdom.

INNUMBERS

  • 2 Years since Saudi Green Initiative was launched. 
  • 10 billion Target number of trees to be planted.
  • 18 million Trees planted in Saudi Arabia in 2022.
  • 60,000 Hectares of land rehabilitated in 2022.
  • 250,000 Cultivated shrubs in AlUla nurseries.
  • 62 Sites approved for tree planting.
  • 150,000 Homes powered by renewable energy.
  • 1,200 Endangered animals rewilded.

Historically, most resources for conservation efforts have been invested in areas considered wild and, therefore, less populated. Preserving these “untouched” places is critical for many reasons.

However, due to a noticeable increase in annual heat waves and extreme weather patterns, scientists and urban planners have turned their focus on urban areas to develop new strategies for resilient built environments.

For decades, rapid urbanization across the Kingdom and the lack of sustainable development on the ground led to polluted air, soaring temperatures, severe dust storms, and other harmful byproducts.

Saudi Green Initiative: An overview

There is a mechanism for defining specific places for afforestation and selecting suitable species for cultivation. Experts and specialists supervise the selection of planting sites before implementing, where available space and assured protection of the sites are mandatory to ensure the preservation and maintenance of trees. This is in addition to the suitability of the trees planted in these sites, whose types are chosen to make them compatible with the type of the soil in which they are planted. The National Center for Vegetation Coverage Development and Desertification Control has selected about 26 sites in various regions of the Kingdom to serve as alternative sites if the partner agencies do not have sites to implement afforestation campaigns. These sites meet all the requirements, including for protection and care.

The Environmental Awareness Initiative is one of the many efforts of the National Transformation Program to enhance and raise societal awareness of environmental issues and establish a sense of individual and collective responsibility for preserving natural resources in the Kingdom. The initiative aims to contribute to reducing pollution of all kinds and achieving environmental sustainability. This is being achieved through afforestation campaigns and directing the efforts of agencies, institutions and individuals toward afforestation. Afforestation campaigns are being launched with the private sector or environmental associations in coordination with the National Center for Plant Cover Development and Combating Desertification. The “Let’s Make It Green” campaign aims to increase the green area in the Kingdom and combat desertification, in addition to rehabilitating degraded vegetation sites and raising awareness of the importance of reducing harmful vegetation practices. The objective is to improve the quality of life in Saudi Arabia per the goals of Vision 2030.

  • Saleh Bindakhil, spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture.

This led to the rise of the urban heat island effect — a phenomenon that occurs when cities replace land with dense concentrations of buildings, pavement, and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat.

Scientists at Nanjing and Yale Universities analyzed satellite data from across 2,000 cities around the world from 2002 to 2021. They found that cities are warming by a rate of 0.56 degrees Celsius per decade during the day and 0.43 C per decade at night.

The study compared the rise in temperatures to that of rural areas and found that urban areas are warming 29 percent faster on average.

This data should ring alarm bells for any nation with growing ambitions and growing cities.

In recent years, an international team of climate scientists, economists, and energy systems modelers have built a range of new “pathways” that examine how global society, demographics, and economics might change over the next century.

They are collectively known as the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, which analyze how the world might evolve in the absence of climate policy and how different levels of climate change mitigation could be achieved in five different ways.

According to the G20 Climate Risk Atlas, Saudi Arabia will experience severe climate impacts if it follows a high-emissions pathway. Without urgent action, the Kingdom will see an 88 percent increase in the frequency of agricultural drought by 2050.

Heatwaves will last longer, and the combination of sea level rise, coastal erosion, and more extreme weather events will cause chaos for Saudi Arabia’s economy, which stands to lose around 12.2 percent of its gross domestic product by 2050 if it fails to act.

Data analysis from the Climate Change Knowledge Portal’s simulations shows that a rise in temperatures in the Kingdom is evident in the coming decades.

However, research has also shown that large variations in afforestation-related climate cooling can modify local surface temperatures and reduce them.

Saudi Arabia is committed to making a sizable impact on rising temperatures through collaborations between government entities, the private sector, and local communities.

TIMELINE

  • 2016 King Salman launches renewable energy initiative.
  • 2017 National Renewable Energy Program announced.
  • 2018 Launch of the National Environment Strategy.
  • 2019 Creation of the Special Forces for Environmental Security.
  • 2020 “Let’s Make it Green” campaign launched to halt desertification.
  • 2021 Inaugural Saudi Green Initiative Forum and Middle East Green Summit.
  • 2030 Target to plant +600 million trees, protect 30 percent of land and sea, cut CO2 emissions by 278 million tons per annum.
  • 2060 Target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

To increase vegetation in urban areas and mitigate the effects of climate change, 77 initiatives and programs were activated under the broader SGI umbrella.

The Green Saudi Cities initiative, launched by the Municipal, Rural Affairs, and Housing Ministry, aims to plant up to 32 million trees in public parks and gardens across the capital city, Riyadh.

The scheme will be conducted over three phases and will undertake new greening projects in Riyadh, equivalent to an area of 437.5 sq. km. The project is set to be completed by 2031.

The capital is also undergoing a massive overhaul as the Green Riyadh project sets out to increase the proportion of green space to 9 percent and to plant 7.5 million trees by 2030.

At the heart of it all, work is underway to establish the King Salman Park, the largest urban park project in the world, in which 11 sq. km of its planned 16.6 sq. km park will be covered in green spaces and more than a million trees.

Similarly, the “Green Qibla” initiative aims to plant 15 million trees in the holy city of Makkah. The project, led by the Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites, is projected to finish by 2036.




Abdulaziz Al-Moqbel, Director of the Green Riyadh Program, participating in planting the first seedlings in the afforestation project in Al-Jazeera neighborhood (east of Riyadh) on Thursday, March 16, within the activities of “Green Riyadh” program.‎ (Supplied)

Other viable paths to increase sustainability and mirror the projected positive effects of urban greening projects and afforestation initiatives are renewable energy and the use of electric vehicles.

Efforts within cities to transform high-emissions human activities such as transportation, energy production, and waste generation are increasing as 150,000 homes are now powered by renewable energy sources.

Last month, the Kingdom’s first electric public transport bus began operating in the western city of Jeddah. Studies have shown that electric public transport, powered through renewable energy, could cut 250 million tons of carbon emissions by 2030, improve public health, and reduce noise and air pollution.

“We are working on using other alternatives for taxis and public transport, and we have various tests to use alternatives that reduce carbon emissions, as a target for the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, until we reach a 45 percent reduction in carbon emissions in transportation, leading to clean energy,” Rumaih Al-Rumaih, acting chairman of the Public Transport Authority, told Arab News.




Environmental and wildlife conservation go hand in hand in changing Saudi Arabia. (NCW)

In 2018, a European Environment Agency report titled “Electric vehicles from life cycle and circular economy perspectives,” confirmed that the greenhouse gas emissions of EVs are approximately 17-30 percent lower than the emissions of petrol and diesel cars.

Although the study referred to EVs using the EU energy mix (petroleum products including crude oil, natural gas, renewable energy, nuclear energy, and solid fossil fuels), the report also stated that EVs emit zero exhaust emissions at the street level, improving local air quality.

Using such alternatives will not bring back the lakes and grassland that once spilled across the Arabian Peninsula centuries ago. However, tree planting is widely touted as one of the most effective tools to combat the climate crisis and restore biodiversity.

Government agencies, businesses, and communities across the Kingdom have all pledged to drive forward the large-scale tree planting initiative, not only to make the Kingdom greener but to create healthy ecosystems and improve the overall quality of life.

 


Winners of Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water honored in Vienna

Updated 7 sec ago
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Winners of Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water honored in Vienna

  • Billions of people living without safe drinking water, UN secretary-general says
  • Previous winners have helped develop sustainable water resources, Saudi environment minster says

RIYADH: The Saudi environment minister called on scientists and researchers to work together to find practical solutions to global water challenges as he attended this year’s Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water at the UN offices in Vienna on Wednesday.
Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadhli congratulated the winners of the 11th cycle of the awards, which are held under the patronage of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Press Agency reported
Their work, he said, had contributed to the development and sustainability of water resources. He also praised the Kingdom’s leadership for supporting research and innovation in the sector.
“This confirms the importance of government institutions worldwide coordinating and organizing to transfer these innovations into practice,” he said.
Experts should work together to find practical solutions to the world’s water challenges, Al-Fadhli said.
“It has become important for water sectors in the world to embrace and enhance these researches and innovations and adopt the principle of integrated water resources management in a manner that suits the nature and geography of each country, taking into account economic, financial and environmental sustainability.”
He thanked the award’s board members and secretary-general for their efforts and said the Kingdom would continue to play its part in addressing water-related challenges at the local, regional and international levels.
The Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Abdullah bin Khalid Toula said: “In 2023, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the establishment of a global water organization, which aims to enhance integration between countries and organizations to address the challenges of water availability in a comprehensive manner and make it a platform for exchanging best technical practices, supporting research, development and innovation and enabling priority quality projects and facilitating their financing, in an effort to ensure the sustainability of water resources and enhance safe access opportunities for all.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “Water is life, yet billions of people live without safe drinking water, sanitation services or basic hygiene facilities and water scarcity is increasing and people and communities pay the price.”
Dr. Badran bin Abdulrahman Al-Omar, chairman of the award’s board, said: “The late Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud anticipated the water crisis we face today, as a growing population suffers from increasing demand for food, water and hygiene under conditions exacerbated by uncertainty about climate change. He realized that scientific solutions were needed to alleviate this crisis.”
The Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water was a unique scientific award dedicated to advanced innovations, focused on tangible achievements in finding creative solutions to humanity’s water needs, he said.
The award’s secretary-general, Dr. Abdulmalik bin Abdulrahman Al-Sheikh, said the award had been created in response to the global water situation and that previous winners were working together to overcome the challenges of providing sufficient potable water for people all around the world.
The Kingdom’s ambassadors to Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia also attended the awards ceremony.
This year’s winners were from 14 institutions in six countries: China, the Czech Republic, Italy, Singapore, the UK and the US.
Dr. Qiuhua Liang from Loughborough University, UK, and his team won the Surface Water Award.
Dr. Chunmiao Zeng from the Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China, and his team won the Groundwater Award.
Dr. Virender K. Sharma from Texas A&M University, US, and his team members attained the Alternative Water Resources Award.
Dr. Joseph Hon Wei Lee from the Macau University of Science and Technology, China, and his teammates won the Water Resources Management and Protection Award.
Anyone who wishes to nominate their project for consideration for the 12th cycle of the awards should do so at psipw.org before the end of December 2025.


Saudi Arabia’s transport authority suspends 3 apps for violations

Updated 6 min 27 sec ago
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Saudi Arabia’s transport authority suspends 3 apps for violations

  • Three applications used within the online hail and ride and delivery services sectors lacked licenses from the relevant authorities and failed to follow regulations
  • TGA regulations require that each taxi driver wear an approved uniform to ensure the safety and security of the public

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Transport General Authority suspended three digital applications on Wednesday for breaching transport regulations and failing to follow the country’s cyber and labor laws.

The three applications used within the online hail and ride and delivery services sectors lacked licenses from the relevant authorities and failed to follow regulations, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.

The transport authority said that two of the suspended applications provided transportation services for passengers while the third was active in the delivery sector. It added that digital applications should obtain licenses to run on the country’s cyber network.

Digital applications should follow labor laws and hire national staff to work within passenger transportation services, the authority said, adding that each vehicle and driver must meet the legal requirements to operate on the road.

The Transport General Authority’s regulations require that each taxi driver wear an approved uniform to ensure the safety and security of the public.


Saudi crown prince, Russia’s Putin discuss Ukraine war during call

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (File/SPA/AFP)
Updated 13 November 2024
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Saudi crown prince, Russia’s Putin discuss Ukraine war during call

  • Saudi-Russian relations and efforts made to intensify them were praised during the call

RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed developments in the war in Ukraine during a phone call, Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.

Saudi-Russian relations and efforts made to intensify them were praised during the call. Cooperation between the two countries in various fields was also discussed.

Prince Mohammed and Putin also discussed a number of issues and topics of common interest, SPA said. 


Saudi authorities seize 12 million amphetamine pills at Jeddah port

Updated 13 November 2024
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Saudi authorities seize 12 million amphetamine pills at Jeddah port

  • Kingdom’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control said that the 11.9 million pills were hidden inside a shipping container
  • Seizure was a joint security effort with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority as part of ongoing counter-narcotics operations

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s counter-narcotics authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle nearly 12 million amphetamine pills through the port in Jeddah.

The Kingdom’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control said on Wednesday that the 11.9 million pills were hidden inside a shipping container of building materials at Jeddah Islamic Port. The pills were concealed behind gypsum boards, SPA reported.

The seizure was a joint security effort with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority as part of ongoing counter-narcotics operations to crack down on criminal networks and smuggling activity to the Kingdom.

Authorities did not announce any arrests in connection with the case. Several attempts to smuggle large quantities of Captagon, a type of amphetamine, have been foiled at Jeddah port in recent years.

In March, authorities thwarted an attempt to smuggle nearly 2.5 million amphetamine pills through Jeddah and announced the arrest of several people in the case, who included a Syrian national, two other expatriates and two Saudi citizens.

Captagon is used by young men and teenage boys across the Middle East and has a lucrative street value of between $10 and $25 a pill, according to research by the International Addiction Review Journal.

In 2023, an investigation — “The Kingdom vs Captagon” — carried out by the Arab News Research and Studies Unit, revealed that the Syrian regime and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon were the primary sources of the drugs being smuggled to Saudi Arabia and the Arab region.


Saudi Arabia adds 198 sites to National Antiquities Register

Updated 13 November 2024
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Saudi Arabia adds 198 sites to National Antiquities Register

  • Hail Region, Makkah, Qassim, Jouf account for majority of additions
  • Register now comprises 9,317 examples of nation’s cultural heritage

RIYADH: The Heritage Commission has added 198 new archaeological sites to the National Antiquities Register, taking the total across the Kingdom to 9,317.

The commission said the registrations were part of its broader efforts to document and revive Saudi Arabia’s cultural heritage, thus providing researchers and enthusiasts with reliable information on heritage locations and archaeological sites in the Kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.

Hail region accounts for the bulk of the new additions, with 50, followed by Makkah (39), Qassim (34), Jouf (28), Madinah (14), Tabuk (13). The remainder are in Riyadh region (eight), Jazan (five), Asir, Najran and Northern Borders (two each) and the Eastern Province (one).

All of the registrations were carried out in line with the Law of Antiquities, Museums and Urban Heritage.

The commission said it sought to encourage archaeological studies and highlight the historical value of sites, thus raising the global profile of Saudi heritage. It also acknowledged the role of local communities in discovering sites, whose participation contributes significantly to protecting the nation’s cultural heritage and promoting greater awareness for future generations.

People are encouraged to report any new archaeological discoveries or illegal activities that might be detrimental to heritage sites via the commission’s social media accounts, the Balagh platform, by visiting any of its offices, or by calling the Unified Security Operations Center on 911.

Saudi Arabia has several archaeological sites that are recognized internationally, including Hegra in AlUla, which in 2008 became the first in the Kingdom to be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

At-Turaif District in Diriyah was added to the list in 2010, Historic Jeddah in 2014, Rock Art in the Hail region in 2015, Al-Ahsa Oasis in 2018 and the Hima Cultural Area in Jazan in 2021, among others.