Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abulaziz bin Salman announced on Friday that the Green Saudi Initiative forum would be an annual event in order to review the implementation of the Kingdom’s climate goals.
“Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman decided to hold the initiative annually; because we are confident in our steps, we challenge everyone,” the minister said at the opening of the second edition of the Green Saudi Initiative forum in Sharm el-Sheikh.
“We committed ourselves to the goal of achieving carbon neutrality in 2060… During the next year, we will announce 10 new projects,” he added.
Addressing Angela Wilkinson, Secretary-General and CEO of the World Energy Council, and Jared Daniels, CEO of the Global CCS Institute, who accompanied him on stage at the inauguration, Prince Abdulaziz said: “You asked for an evaluation of our environmental programs, so you should be open to the long list that I will present.”
The Saudi energy minister reviewed a set of initiatives, including the implementation of the circular carbon economy approach and the Clean Fuel solutions for cooking, which could benefit more than 750 million individuals worldwide.
He also touched on the Kingdom’s endeavor to accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies and sources, with the aim of reducing hydrocarbon emissions by diversifying the energy mix used in generating electricity.
Prince Abdulaziz talked about other environmental goals, including the planting of 10 billion trees. He also explained that Aramco had the lowest level of methane emissions by all standards, stressing that the Kingdom was on the path to achieving zero neutrality.
On Thursday, Saudi Aramco signed a joint development agreement with the Ministry of Energy to establish a carbon capture and storage center.
Amin Al-Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, said that the company had signed a joint development agreement with SLB and Linde to establish a carbon capture and storage center with a potential to store up to 9 million tons of carbon dioxide safely annually by 2027.
He said that Aramco was set to contribute around 6 million tons, with the rest to come from other industrial sources.
The facility will be located in Jubail on the east coast of Saudi Arabia, with a goal of making a significant contribution to the 44 million tons the kingdom plans to capture by 2035, Nasser revealed.
