Crown Prince launches Saudi Green Initiative Forum

Prince Mohamed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister, who is also Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Green Saudi Arabia, launched the inaugural edition of the annual forum of the Saudi Green Initiative in Riyadh Saturday.The initiative is concerned with launching new environmental programmes for the Kingdom and monitoring the impact of the previously-announced initiatives, in order to achieve the goals of the Saudi Green Initiative.In a key opening speech at the Saudi Green Initiative Forum, the Saudi Crown Prince announced the launch of the first package in the Kingdom, to set a roadmap for protecting the environment and confronting climate change, designed to contribute to achieving the ambitious goals of the Saudi Green Initiative.He was quoted by Saudi Press Agency as pointing out that the Kingdom has launched initiatives in the energy sector designed to reduce carbon emissions by 278mn tons annually by 2030, thus voluntarily more than doubling the targeted emissions reduction.Prince Mohamed bin Salman confirmed the start of the first phase of afforestation by planting more than 450mn trees, in addition to rehabilitating eight million hectares of degraded lands, and allocating new protected areas, bringing the total protected areas in the Kingdom to more than 20% of its total area.