DUBAI: Riyadh is poised to transform into one of the world’s most sustainable cities by the end of the decade, thanks to substantial investments earmarked to prepare the Saudi capital for the upcoming Expo 2030.  

Saudi Vice Minister of Tourism Princess Haifa bint Muhammad Al-Saud announced a $92 billion investment for the global showpiece event at the third Saudi Green Initiative Forum on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai.  

Riyadh has secured the hosting rights for the 2030 World Expo, scheduled to take place between Oct. 1, 2030, and March 31, 2031.

The SGI Forum kicked off on Dec. 4 as COP28 continues to mobilize world leaders toward serious action against climate change. 

Addressing the event, Princess Haifa set the tone by emphasizing the projected growth in international arrivals, expected to reach 1.8 billion by 2030.  

She underscored the collective responsibility, stating: “Those are the types of commitments that we need to start proactively doing, and it starts from a role as individuals, all the way to the roles of the communities, to the roles of government and the roles of the private sector.” 

Beyond Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is spearheading a significant push toward sustainable tourism, with the NEOM giga-project taking center stage.  

Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO of NEOM, outlined the ambitious vision for this new urban project, which starts from scratch. He detailed the plan to designate 95 percent of the region as an untouched nature reserve, with only 5 percent allocated for the city, envisioned to accommodate 9 to 10 million people.  

Al-Nasr said: “We are starting from zero. We have no legacy. We have nothing to undo. And that's a blessing, but that’s a big responsibility.”  

He added: “We said look, first we want the nature reserve to govern how NEOM will be done. Immediately we decided to make 95 percent of this whole region untouched nature reserve.”  

Furthermore, Al-Nasr emphasized the commitment to renewable energy, stating: “We said we need to build the city or this NEOM by having it all energized by renewable energy. Renewable energy is the base of NEOM.” 

Mohammad Al-Tayyar, the program director of Saudi Arabia’s Oil Sustainability Program — an initiative aimed at developing new and environmentally and economically advantageous applications for hydrocarbons — shared insights into effective climate action. 

He stated, “So if you focus on the four R’s — reduce, reuse, recycle, and remove — you can really achieve a lot of your mitigation and abatement activities.” 

Speaking at the same forum, Governor of Public Investment Fund Yasir Al-Rumayyan highlighted Saudi Arabia’s economic successes and unveiled plans for a net-zero transition by the first quarter of the following year.  

He discussed the transformation of the sovereign wealth fund to the seventh rank globally and its potential role in the India-Saudi-Europe corridor, with a focus on green hydrogen and renewable energy.  

“We are doing our part, and I hope the rest of the world will do theirs,” said Al-Rumayyan.  

Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Al-Ibrahim emphasized the significance of Vision 2030 in diversifying the country’s economy and empowering the youth.  

He acknowledged the experimental nature of their approach, stating: “We’re very experimental. We’re very humble about learning from others’ experiences, including our own experiences.”  

The minister stressed the importance of stable and growing economies in achieving effective climate action and shared their commitment to building institutional capabilities, and said: “I think, from our point of view, the thing that we don’t regret doing is building institutional capabilities, educating people.”  

He continued: “We have the cleanest oil in the world being produced in Saudi Arabia. And we still want to be a large, and the most reliable and cleanest conventional, hydrocarbon energy producer.” 

President of the New Development Bank Dilma Rousseff remarked on the challenges faced by developing nations, stating: “There is a problem in the Global South countries. The burden of public debt. The public debt is rising too much and too fast.” 

The leaders collectively emphasized Saudi Arabia’s commitment to sustainable practices, renewable energy, and nature conservation.  

The announcements made at the third SGI Forum reflect the Kingdom’s determination to lead the charge in addressing the global climate crisis and fostering a more sustainable future for generations to come. 

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has quadrupled its renewable connected capacity in the last two years as part of its acceleration toward reaching net zero by 2060, according to the minister of energy. 

During the inauguration of the third edition of the Saudi Green Initiative Forum, held on the sidelines of the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman highlighted that the Kingdom witnessed a surge in renewable energy from 700 megawatts of capacity to 2 GW in the past two years, with more than 8 GW of renewables under construction and around 13 GW in various development stages.

According to the minister, the region is on track to achieving its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 278 million tons per annum by 2030, with a plan to tender an additional 20 GW by 2024.

The minister said: “Today in the UAE, in tandem with the COP28, we show our concrete action in progress toward this ambitious on renewable.”

He added: “Our actions are examples of solutions or technologies which are consistent with the Paris Agreement and its bottom-up approach. We will be working together to develop technology-based initiatives to advance the implementation of effective climate action on advancing international collaboration.” 

In its attempts to encourage international cooperation in emission reduction, the minister highlighted the economic corridor connecting India, the US, and Europe, deeming it a “key enabler” for energy exports. 

The corridor will include electricity transmission lines and hydrogen pipelines, supplying clean energy at scale reliably and affordably, as outlined by Prince Abdulaziz. 

Speaking on a panel during the SGI Forum, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund, further addressed the implications of the economic corridor, saying: “When we have a corridor from India, through Saudi all the way to Europe, one of the things that we get to have in the corridor, in addition to the railways and the communication lines is green hydrogen and renewable energy.”

The role of funding within the energy transition was further underscored by Khalid Al-Falih, the Kingdom’s minister of investment, who noted that the intersection of environmental and economic sustainability succeeds through strategic investments.

The Saudi government consistently ranks among the top three in every metric that promotes the highest levels of efficiency and minimal emissions for both industries and consumers, emphasizing that investment and consumerism are not independent of the ongoing green efforts, adding that the Ministry of Energy is “keeping Aramco on its trajectory of being the world’s lowest emitting oil company.”

“My key point about sustainability is economic sustainability, and that’s where I think investment comes in ... the future is about responsible climate action in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We have global policies, and we’re at COP. This is where global policies are being written and architected,” Al-Falih said.

Saudi Arabia’s growth toward net zero emissions is not linear, the Minister of State and Saudi Climate Envoy, Adel Al-Jubeir, said during his address at the forum, adding that it entails the intersection of varying means of accelerated climate goals.

The minister added that the region has launched more than 80 programs and committed almost $200 billion to climate initiatives while still exploring new areas of development.

He said: “I would say that the approach that we have used in Saudi Arabia is a ‘whole of government, all of society’ approach. We don’t believe that you can segment different areas. We have to work, so to speak, on all cylinders.

"I believe our approach has to be comprehensive, not just in specific areas, there is room for reducing waste, there is room for increasing efficiencies there is room for planting trees. There is room for combating desertification, there is room for combating plastics, there is room for carbon capture and sequestration.”

Emphasizing this notion in his address, the minister of energy outlined that this year, the Kingdom is commissioning four “highly efficient” gas-fired power plants with a total capacity of 5.6 GW that simultaneously have carbon capture readiness while also building additional gas powerplants with a capacity of approximately 8.4 GW.

It also intends to become a “hub” for “clean green hydrogen” with the launch of the $8.4 billion green hydrogen plant in NEOM, poised to claim the title of the world’s largest facility of its kind. 

Several bilateral agreements have been signed with international counterparts throughout 2023, aiming to produce and export clean, environmentally safe hydrogen, the minister noted.

Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the forum, the CEO of NEOM Green Hydrogen Co., David Edmondson, said: “It’s a pretty exciting time. It ties in perfectly with what the region are trying to do with Vision 2030. I mean, the Kingdom has aspirations to export 4 million tonnes of low-carbon hydrogen by 2030. When our plant comes on stream in 2026, we’ll be exporting about 250,000 tonnes. So it’s a step in the right direction.”

The comprehensive strategy implemented since the inception of SGI has resulted in the planting of 43.9 million trees and shrubs, along with the rehabilitation of over 94,000 hectares of degraded land across the Kingdom, contributing to the target of growing 10 billion trees in Saudi Arabia over the coming decades, the CEO of the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification, Khaled Abdullah Al-Abdul Qadir, told Arab News on the sidelines of the forum.

According to the CEO, over 40 initiatives are already underway, directly supporting progress toward the interim target of planting  of over 600 million trees and rehabilitating 8 million hectares of land by 2030.

Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the forum, the Kingdom’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Bandar Al-Khorayef, said that these fulfilled benchmarks and ongoing initiatives are indicative of Saudi Arabia setting an example for the world of how many undertakings can be achieved at once.

He said: “We are a great believer of transition and we put our beliefs into action. We really have great also at teams that are working. Young Saudis very excited to find the right way to help. And I think it’s great to celebrate also the results but also be mindful of the responsibility that we have. So I’m really happy that we are able to see great results, some of which can be scalable ideas which will not only help Saudi, but I think it would be also helping the global community in general.”