Radical cross-border climate solutions promised by Middle East Green Initiative

Countries across the Gulf, Levant and North Africa meet at COP to review progress as region faces extreme challenges on land and in the seas

Desert in Saudi Arabia’s AlUla region. In cooler times, this was farmland (RCU)

The countries of the Middle East and North Africa will announce their own response to the climate crisis at the Middle East Green Initiative today [7 November]. The event is being held in conjunction with the COP27 World Leaders Summit, in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt.

Heads of state from the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), the Levant and Africa and international partners (including from the UK) are due to attend at the invitation of His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and and Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

The inaugural MGI summit was held in Riyadh in October 2021. It announced a range of far-reaching measures to push cooperation between states and companies in a region facing a range of serious environmental threats, including water shortages, desertification, species and habitat loss. At its heart is a planting programme that will see a staggering 50 billion new trees across the region.

At the same time, these countries are looking to boost economic growth for their young populations and boost employment opportunities in the emerging green technology.

Six regional centres and programmes are being established under MGI. They will focus research into the Circular Carbon Economy and establish a regional hub for climate change.

Extreme weather events and drought will be the concern of a regional cloud seeding programme and a second centre for early storm warning. A carbon capture hub will see GCC countries working with Iraq.

Sustainable fishing will also get its own regional directorate.

Separately, Saudi Arabia is launching a ‘clean fuel solutions for cooking’ designed to benefit more than 750 million people worldwide and  a regional investment fund for Circular Carbon Economy technology.

The MGI is being broadcast live on YouTube.

The Independent will be reporting live from the MGI and COP throughout the week.