Riyadh, October 26, 2021, SPA -- The Green Middle East Initiative Summit issued a presidential statement, which reads as follows: At the invitation of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, the first summit of the Green Middle East Initiative was held in Riyadh with the participation of a number of the Middle East and African leaders and international officials in the environment and climate change sector. During the summit, the leaders and attendees reviewed the first package of programs and projects announced by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that aim to contribute to achieving the ambitious goals of the Green Middle East Initiative represented in supporting efforts and cooperation in the region to reduce carbon emissions and remove them through natural solutions and adaptation by more than (10%) of the total current global contributions, and the planting of (50) billion trees in the region, to achieve (5%) of the global target for afforestation, which is the largest tree-planting program in the world. In order to achieve the goals of the Green Middle East Initiative, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced during the summit that it will establish an international cooperation platform to implement the concept of a circular carbon economy, establish a regional center for climate change, establish a regional complex for carbon extraction, use and storage, and establish a regional center for early warning of storms to contribute to reducing the result of health risks of dust waves. The Kingdom announced also establishing a regional center for sustainable development of fisheries to contribute to raising marine biodiversity and reducing the level of emissions in the fish sector by about 15%, and establishing a regional program for cloud seeding to contribute to raising the level of precipitation by nearly (20%). These centers and programs will have a major role in creating the necessary infrastructure to protect the environment, reduce emissions and raise the level of regional coordination. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will also work to establish a global initiative to contribute to provide clean fuel solutions that offers food to more than (750) million people in the world and to establish a fund to invest in solutions for circular carbon economy technologies in the region. The total investment in these two initiatives is approximately SAR (39) billion. The Kingdom will contribute to financing about 15% of it. Believing in the importance of the environment and vegetation cover in Africa, the summit called for intensifying coordination and joint action to preserve and develop it, in addition to establishing the Green Initiative Foundation as an independent non-profit organization to support the summit and raise the level of coordination. Stemming from the shared responsibility in facing common environmental challenges, the leaders agreed on the importance of working together to develop a regional roadmap and work methodology to confront these challenges in order to achieve the objectives of the Green Middle East Initiative, believing in the importance of the initiative’s aspirations for the sustainable development of the region and the preservation of biodiversity, and restore it for the benefit of all countries of the world. The leaders expressed their appreciation for the Kingdom's initiatives and efforts in the field of environment and climate change, and extended thanks to His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for his leadership of these efforts and his kind invitation to leaders and officials at this summit, and agreed to form joint working groups and to hold this summit periodically to develop executive plans to achieve the goals of the initiative. -- SPA 05:44 LOCAL TIME 02:44 GMT 0005 www.spa.gov.sa/w1641513