Saudi Arabia has said it will contribute $2.5 billion to a green initiative in the Middle East over the next 10 years, and host its headquarters.
The Middle East Green Initiative was launched by Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud last year as part of efforts to reduce regional carbon emissions.
The Saudi leader was speaking yesterday as he hosted the second edition of Middle East Green Initiative Summit on the sidelines of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, took part in the summit.
World leaders and diplomats framed the fight against global warming as a battle for human survival during opening speeches at the COP27 climate summit, with the head of the United Nations declaring a lack of progress so far had the world speeding down a ‘highway to hell’.
While launching the initiative, Saudi Arabia had said last year it aimed to contribute 15 per cent of the $10.4bn required for the fund’s clean energy projects.
The Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister also said the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, would aim for net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Middle East Green Initiative aims to reduce carbon emissions from regional hydrocarbon production by more than 60pc.
The stark messages at COP27, echoed by the heads of African, European and Middle Eastern nations alike, set an urgent tone as governments began two weeks of talks in the seaside resort town of Sharm El Sheikh to figure out how to avert the worst of climate change.
“Humanity has a choice: co-operate or perish,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told delegates, urging them to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels and speed funding to poorer countries struggling under climate impacts that have already occurred.
While leaders tended to agree on the risks of global warming, their speeches revealed huge rifts, including over whether fossil fuels could play a role in a climate-friendly future, and who should pay for climate damage that has already occurred.
Immediately after Guterres’ speech urging an end to the fossil fuel era, UAE President Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took the stage and said his country would continue to produce them for as long as there is a need.
Adding pressure to address the issue has been increasing as weather calamities mount.
It was revealed yesterday that at least 15,000 people died during the recent heatwave in Europe
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