Context

• To combat climate change, Saudi Arabia has launched the Saudi Green Initiative and Middle East Green Initiative

Key Details

• The Saudi leadership of the summit highlighted how climate change had negatively impacted the planet, people’s lives and their well-being.
• The G20 introduced initiatives like establishing a Global Coral Reef Research and Development Accelerator Platform to accelerate scientific knowledge and technology development in support of coral reef survival, conservation, resilience, adaptation and restoration.
• G20 leaders also acknowledged the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) Platform as a tool towards affordable, reliable, and secure energy and economic growth.
• Saudi Arabia currently operates the largest carbon capture and utilisation plant in the world, turning half a million tonnes of CO2 annually into products such as fertilizers and methanol.
• It also operates one of the region’s most advanced CO2-enhanced oil recovery plants that captures and stores 8,00,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. Plans are afoot to deploy additional carbon capture, utilisation and storage infrastructure.

Saudi Green Initiative

• It aims to raise the vegetation cover, reduce carbon emissions, combat pollution and land degradation, and preserve marine life.
• As part of the initiative, 10 billion trees will be planted in the Kingdom.
• It aims to reduce carbon emissions by more than 4% of global contributions, through a renewable energy programme that will generate 50% of Saudi’s energy from renewables by 2030.

  

• With the understanding that the need of the hour is to do more than enough, Saudi Arabia is working towards raising the percentage of its protected areas to more than 30% of its total land area, representing roughly 6,00,000 sq km, exceeding the global target of 17%.

Middle East Green initiative

• Saudi Arabia will work with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and regional partners to plant an additional 40 billion trees in the West Asian region.
• It represents 5% of the global target of planting one trillion trees and reducing 2.5% of global carbon levels. Saudi Arabia has been sharing its expertise and know-how with its neighbouring countries to reduce carbon emissions resulting from hydrocarbon production in the region by 60% and globally by 10%.

Working towards Vision 2030

• As part of this, Saudi Arabia carried out a comprehensive restructuring of the environmental sector and established the Environmental Special Forces in 2019.
• With NEOM and The Line, Saudi Arabia has already redefined the idea of sustainable habitats. NEOM’s location also gives Saudi Arabia many advantages in the field of hydrogen production.
• According to the World Bank, for every dollar invested in resilient infrastructure, $4 in benefits are generated.
• With the Public Investment Fund recently pumping in $15 billion in the NEOM project and another $10 billion in renewable and solar energy projects, it is clear that the pandemic has only strengthened Saudi Arabia’s resolve to realise the goals of Vision 2030 and become one of the major producers of renewable energy with a capacity to generate 9.5 GW by 2023.

India’s Stand

• India has also made remarkable commitments to tackle climate change and is on track to achieve its Paris Agreement targets.
• India’s renewable energy capacity is the fourth largest in the world.
• India has an ambitious target of achieving 450 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030. 
• National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)
• Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) emission norms
• UJALA scheme
• National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)
• International Solar Alliance
• Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure

Way Forward

• Saudi Arabia hopes that the launch of the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative marks the beginning of a green era and that these initiatives provide momentum to other countries to unify their efforts to save our planet.

Source: The Hindu

For Environment and Biodiversity Current Affairs: Click Here