Coinciding with the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP16), the fourth edition of the Saudi Green Initiative Forum with the slogan “By Nature, We Take Initiative” concluded.
Inaugurated by Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz and featuring Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Cabinet Member, and Climate Envoy Adel Al-Jubeir, the SGI Forum included 50 speakers in 25 sessions, and more than 1,500 attendees. Notable speakers included President of Senegal Macky Sall; 4th President & CEO of Saudi Aramco Amin Nasser; Secretary General & CEO of the World Energy Council Angela Wilkinson; CEO & Chairman of the Board at TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanné; CEO of Air Liquide François Jackow, and Director General of the IUCN Dr. Grethel Aguilar.
Leading experts from global multilateral and environmental organizations, including the World Bank and the Convention on Wetlands, also spoke. The SGI Talks program which includes daily expert-led events at the SGI Gallery in Riyadh will continue and run from December 5 to December 13.
The Forum had five topic leads: Greening Land for Global Good, Energy Innovation Driving Emissions Reduction, Financing the Green Transition for Sustainable Livelihoods, Nature-Based Solutions for Climate and Community Resilience, and Biodiversity Protection as a Key to Climate Resilience.
Saudi Arabia’s Climate Envoy Adel Al-Jubeir explains why COP16 is so important for humanity
On the first day of the forum, five new initiatives were announced with a value of $60 million. To date the SGI has 86 ongoing initiatives with total investments reaching $188 billion. Since the launch of the Saudi Green Initiative in 2021, the Kingdom has successfully planted over 100 million trees and rehabilitated 118,000 hectares of degraded land, an area larger than 165,000 football fields. Also, Saudi Arabia has protected 18.1% of its land areas and 6.49% of its marine areas, covering an area of approximately 400,000 square kilometers. More than halfway towards its 2030 goal of protecting 30% of the Kingdom’s land and marine areas.
In pursuit of its own energy transition, Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy goal for 2030 is 130 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity. Thus far 6.2 gigawatts have been successfully integrated into the grid, and 20 gigawatts worth of projects were initiated in 2024 alone. 44.2 gigawatts are currently under development.
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