Middle East Green Initiative

The Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) is one of the initiatives announced by the Crown Prince, Prime Minister, His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in March 2021 to protect the earth and the environment, combat climate change in the Middle East and North Africa, and reduce the effects of high temperatures on opportunities and quality of life in the region.

MGI is a regional effort led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to mitigate the impact of climate change on the region, and collaborate to meet global climate objectives. By strengthening regional cooperation and creating the infrastructure needed to reduce emissions and protect the environment, the Middle East Green Initiative can reduce emissions and protect the environment in the global fight against climate change.

MGI derives its strategic environmental goals from three main pillars: environmental supervision, knowledge transfer, and innovative future solutions to climate issues. The goal is to develop radical solutions to preserve environmental sustainability and enhance the quality of life.

MGI is a catalyst for joining efforts by consolidating actions to widen the scope of climate commitments, protect the region's climate, and provide the necessary assistance to implement future plans in this regard, which lead to a better future for the region and its population.

By putting the planet first, MGI will not only deliver a positive environmental impact, but will also create major economic opportunities. Led by the Kingdom, the initiative is widely supported internationally by many countries, including the USA, China, Russia, the UK, France, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Brazil, Pakistan, India, Kuwait, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Iraq, Qatar, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Djibouti, Chad, Tanzania, South Africa, Yemen, and Palestine.

MGI aims to plant 50 billion trees across the Middle East (including 10 billion trees in the Kingdom). It also aims to restore and care for 200 million ha of degraded lands through afforestation to reduce carbon emissions by 2.5 percent, and decrease oil and gas carbon emissions in the region by more than 60 percent.

The Kingdom established the Green Initiative Foundation, a non-profit organization that seeks to support and ensure the implementation of the objectives set by the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative.

MGI sub-projects include a cooperative platform to accelerate the implementation of the concepts of circular carbon economy. Other sub-projects include a regional investment fund for financing technological solutions within the circular carbon economy, a regional center for carbon capture, use and storage, a regional center for sustainable development of fisheries, a regional hub for climate change, a regional center for early warnings of storms, a regional cloud seeding program aimed at increasing rainfall by 10-20 percent starting from the current baseline, in addition to a regional initiative for clean fuel cooking solutions to provide clean solutions to more than 750 million people worldwide.

Held in October 2021, in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the MGI Summit is one of the most prominent elements of the initiative to unify efforts and enhance cooperation between the region's leaders in order to achieve common environmental commitments by intensifying efforts to face climate challenges inside and outside the Kingdom, and agree on the work mechanisms and its foundations.

The MGI Summit forms a first-of-its-kind regional alliance to combat climate change in the Middle East. The summit also lays the foundations for climate diplomacy, enhances the necessary political will to bring about radical change, as well as promoting investment and knowledge transfer to meet common challenges, and providing a platform that combines knowledge and capital.

On October 25, 2021, the regular meeting's first edition was held between the Middle East and North African countries in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to discuss climate change, and unify efforts to combat climate change and preserve the planet.

Several countries participated in the summit, including Kuwait, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, Iraq, Qatar, Egypt and Palestine. The leaders of the participating states agreed to hold the summit periodically to follow up on the progress made towards achieving the initiative's objectives.

Co-chaired by the Crown Prince, Prime Minister, HRH Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the second edition of the Middle East Green Initiative Summit was launched in Sharm El-Sheikh, on November 7, 2022.

The Middle East Green Initiative Summit events were released in conjunction with the World Leaders' Summit at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) with the participation of the world's top leaders, including heads of states and governments from the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Middle East, the Levant, Africa, in addition to international partners.

The countries participating in the summit sought to achieve the regional goals advocated by the Kingdom at the inaugural summit of the initiative. These goals involved reducing carbon emissions in the region by more than 10 percent of global contributions, and planting 50 billion trees in the region, in line with the largest tree planting program in the world.