Who said what? Action and ambition at Cop27’s Saudi Green Initiative
Running alongside the United Nations Climate Change conference, the SGI was attended by global experts including world leaders, politicians, academics, engineers and captains of industry. What were the main takeaways?
“The ambitious Middle East Green Initiative […] seeks to support regional efforts to eliminate CO2 equivalent emissions by more than 670 million tonnes […] representing 10% of global contributions. This is in addition to planting more than 50 billion trees, increasing the area covered by trees 12-fold and rehabilitating 200 million hectares of degraded land, thereby helping to reduce global emissions by a further 2.5%.”His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia
“One of the biggest things I’ve learned from being here is the importance of protecting our wilderness areas, particularly the world’s great forests. These are big carbon sinks, they sequester a lot of carbon and we need to do what we can to help protect them in as many ways as we can.” Levison Wood, author, photographer and film-maker
“We’re not in the business of paying lip service. We act. We do not commit to something unless we know we can do it. Back in 2015 [and the Paris Agreement], we couldn’t commit to a net zero future, because we didn’t have the right infrastructure in place to allow us to commit to something as big as that. But last year we could commit to reaching net zero by 2060 because we had established an ecosystem that allows us to rise up to that challenge.” HH Princess Noura bint Turki Al-Saud, advisor to the Minister of Culture
"Electrify, electrify, electrify and decarbonise electricity.” Lord Adair Turner, chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission
“When we look at the roles that conferences like COP27 have, I would say that it has provided a very important impulse to leadership. Not only in government, but for leadership also in businesses and civil society. But a negotiation does not transform the world.” Ambassador Patricia Espinosa, former executive secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
“You either get ahead of climate change or you are going to be buried by it. Saudi Arabia is committed to being ahead of it. When you look at many world problems, or potential problems, they have to do with climate change, whether there is not enough food or not enough water. These become sources of conflict and we need to get ahead of this in order to eliminate them and to provide a better future for our children and grandchildren.” Adel Al Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s Envoy for Climate Affairs
“We’ve been working with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia to establish a regional centre in the middle of Riyadh to advance emissions reduction. It will be a powerful platform to represent regional voices, influencing global narratives and developing a roadmap to lower emissions.”HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy
“Climate change is real. That’s why we are here today. It’s time to stop thinking and start acting. Tourism has a vital role to play within sustainability. Although today our industry represents around only 8% of greenhouse gas emissions, the number of travellers is expected to double by 2013. Which only means that the environmental impact is going to grow. In Saudi Arabia, we have tourism at the forefront of our efforts to diversify our economy . We are developing 10 destinations across 13 different regions. We need to create regenerative tourism and leave those places in a much better place than when we started. Tourism is too big to fail.”HRH Princess Haifa bint Muhammad Al Saud, vice minister of tourism for Saudi Arabia
“When governments and the private sector work together, we can journey further. Just last month our Voluntary Carbon Market Initiative [where companies buy carbon credits to offset the unavoidable emissions], was the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa region and was the largest carbon credit auction in the world: 1.4 million tons of carbon credit offset certificates were sold to 15 Saudi and regional entities.” Yasir Al Rumayyan, Chairman of Saudi Aramco on a project, which raised $3bn in accordance with Saudi’s green finance framework
“Next year’s Cop28, will be the first global stocktake. This is going to be unique in the COP process — in a way it’s like a report card. We’ll be able to see where we are, compared to where we want to be. We need to be more ambitious. We know that the results of the ‘report card’ will not look good. It’s really important that we scale up.”Mariam Almheiri, the United Arab Emirate’s Minister of Climate Change and Environment (Cop28 will be held in Dubai in the UAE)
“We’ve heard some real, definite things. The tree planting programme surprised quite a lot of people when it was announced last year. Ten billion trees. Really? Well, they’ve actually made progress on that: 600 million trees planted in phase one. I found it rather more optimistic here than I was expecting.” Frank Kane, business consultant and journalist
Find out more about the MGI summit and SGI forum here: greeninitiatives.gov.sa
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