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On its First Celebration... Saudi Green Initiative Enhances Planet Protection

The initiative seeks to protect the environment and improve the quality of life in the country. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The initiative seeks to protect the environment and improve the quality of life in the country. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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On its First Celebration... Saudi Green Initiative Enhances Planet Protection

The initiative seeks to protect the environment and improve the quality of life in the country. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The initiative seeks to protect the environment and improve the quality of life in the country. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

In line with a decision by the Saudi government, March 27 of each year has been designated as an official day to celebrate the Saudi Green Initiative, which aims to chart a path for Saudi Arabia and the region in protecting the planet.

The initiative, launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in March 2021, oversees the implementation of a sustainable, long-term climate action plan that supports Saudi Arabia’s ambition to achieve the goal of zero neutrality by 2060 through the circular carbon economy, and accelerate transition towards a green economy.

The initiative embodies the vision of Prince Mohammed, Crown Prince, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Green Saudi Arabia, to confront the challenges of climate change, improve the quality of life, protect the environment, and advance sustainable innovation for the benefit of future generations.

Leading role

Riyadh plays a pioneering role in reducing the effects of climate change and carbon emissions, given its rich resources and experience in managing global energy stability. According to experts and specialists, Saudi Arabia is qualified to lead a new era of climate action and contribute significantly to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

During the meeting of Arab ministers concerned with climate affairs in Riyadh in October, Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stressed that responding to the challenges of climate change was a shared responsibility.

He explained that each region has its own environment that requires different means and implementation mechanisms to deal with this challenge, emphasizing the importance of four axes, namely adaptation, mitigation, financing, and global effort.

The minister also underlined the vital role of young men and women in responding to the challenges of climate change, by developing solutions and innovations and participating actively in decision-making.

Consolidating interest

Abdul Rahman Al-Fadhli, the Saudi Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, said on his personal account on X that the Council of Ministers’ decision to designate March 27 as an annual day for the Saudi Green initiative represents a “consolidation of the leadership’s interest in environmental issues locally and internationally” and “supports the Kingdom’s approach to leading the green era, and ensuring a more sustainable future for the next generations.”

For his part, Majid Al-Hogail, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, said Saudi Arabia will continue “our journey to enhance the prosperity of our cities and raise the quality of life,” adding: “Our ambitions are great. We are always capable of achieving them.”

Many government agencies are expected to organize events to mark the Saudi Green Initiative Day and highlight their efforts in reducing carbon emissions, increasing afforestation and protecting land and marine areas.

The Ministry of Environment said that 43 afforestation projects have been launched as part of the Saudi Green initiative to achieve the goal of planting 10 billion trees inside Saudi Arabia, and 40 billion trees throughout the region, and rehabilitating degraded lands.

This will ultimately reduce carbon emissions around the world by 2.5 percent, the ministry told Asharq Al-Awsat.

77 different programs

Since the announcement of the Saudi Green Initiative, 77 different programs have been launched to support these goals and drive sustainable growth, with investments worth more than SAR700 billion.

Saudi Arabia has transformed its commitments into concrete actions by uniting the efforts of the government and private sectors and promoting opportunities for cooperation and innovation. It is also moving towards achieving its national climate ambitions and supporting global goals in this framework.

43 afforestation initiatives

The 43 afforestation initiatives aim to plant about 400 million trees by 2030.

The official spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture told Asharq Al-Awsat that these initiatives have contributed until the third quarter of 2023 to planting 43.9 million trees in various parts of Saudi Arabia, and reclaiming 94,000 hectares of degraded lands, achieving a 300 percent increase in production capacity to reduce carbon emissions, and more than 8 gigawatts in production capacity for renewable energy projects.

Biodiversity

In order to strengthen and enhance biological diversity, restore the local natural environment, and increase the percentage of protected areas to more than 30 percent of the total land area in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry said that work is underway to implement four initiatives that will contribute to increasing the percentage of protected terrestrial areas to more than 21 percent, and the percentage of marine protected areas to more than 26 percent by 2030.

Moreover, since the launch of the Saudi Green initiative, 1,669 endangered animals, such as the Arabian oryx, sand gazelle, and ibex, have been resettled in the Kingdom’s natural reserves, where they help enhance biodiversity.

Community participation

The initiative called on all members of Saudi society to participate in the activities of the first edition of the Saudi Green Initiative Day. The Ministry’s spokesman, Saleh bin Abdul Mohsen bin Dakhil, confirmed “a great demand by members of society to participate in the afforestation initiatives taking place in various parts of the country.”

He said that more than 150,000 volunteers have registered to participate in these projects over the past two years, adding that this number is expected to double.

Remote Sensing

With regards to new agricultural technologies that have been utilized within the framework of sustainable solutions that preserve the environment, the Ministry of Environment launched a program for remote sensing and artificial intelligence technologies to study the reality of vegetation areas and contribute to achieving afforestation goals.

Advanced technologies support tree planting efforts in hard-to-reach areas, by identifying suitable sites for planting them, studying the nature of the soil and plant species, and monitoring the movement of sand.

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Varieties

Before Megalodon, Researchers Say a Monstrous Shark Ruled Ancient Australian Seas

A illustration made in Sept. 3, 2025, of a gigantic 8 meter (26 foot) long mega-predatory lamniform shark swimming beside a long-necked plesiosaur in the seas off Australia 115 million years ago. (Pollyanna von Knorring/Swedish Museum of Natural History via AP)
A illustration made in Sept. 3, 2025, of a gigantic 8 meter (26 foot) long mega-predatory lamniform shark swimming beside a long-necked plesiosaur in the seas off Australia 115 million years ago. (Pollyanna von Knorring/Swedish Museum of Natural History via AP)
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Before Megalodon, Researchers Say a Monstrous Shark Ruled Ancient Australian Seas

A illustration made in Sept. 3, 2025, of a gigantic 8 meter (26 foot) long mega-predatory lamniform shark swimming beside a long-necked plesiosaur in the seas off Australia 115 million years ago. (Pollyanna von Knorring/Swedish Museum of Natural History via AP)
A illustration made in Sept. 3, 2025, of a gigantic 8 meter (26 foot) long mega-predatory lamniform shark swimming beside a long-necked plesiosaur in the seas off Australia 115 million years ago. (Pollyanna von Knorring/Swedish Museum of Natural History via AP)

In the age of dinosaurs — before whales, great whites or the bus-sized megalodon — a monstrous shark prowled the waters off what's now northern Australia, among the sea monsters of the Cretaceous period.

Researchers studying huge vertebrae discovered on a beach near the city of Darwin say the creature is now the earliest known mega-predator of the modern shark lineage, living 15 million years earlier than enormous sharks found before.

And it was huge. The ancestor of today’s 6-meter (20-foot) great white shark was thought to be about 8 meters (26 feet) long, the authors of a paper published in the journal Communications Biology said.

“Cardabiodontids were ancient, mega-predatory sharks that are very, very common from the later part of the Cretaceous, after 100 million years ago,” said Benjamin Kear, the senior curator in paleobiology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History and one of the study’s authors. “But this has pushed the time envelope back of when we’re going to find absolutely enormous cardabiodontids.”

Sharks have a 400-million-year history but lamniforms, the ancestors of today’s great white sharks, appear in the fossil record from 135 million years ago. At that time they were small — probably only a meter in length — which made the discovery that lamniforms had already become gigantic by 115 million years ago an unexpected one for researchers.

The vertebrae were found on coastline near Darwin in Australia’s far north, once mud from the floor of an ancient ocean that stretched from Gondwana — now Australia — to Laurasia, which is now Europe. It’s a region rich in fossil evidence of prehistoric marine life, with long-necked plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs among the creatures discovered so far.

The five vertebrae that launched the quest to estimate the size of their mega-shark owners were not a recent discovery, but an older one that had been somewhat overlooked, Kear said. Unearthed in the late 1980s and 1990s, the fossils measured 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) across and had been stored in a museum for years.

When studying ancient sharks, vertebrae are prizes for paleontologists. Shark skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone, and their fossil record is mostly made up of teeth, which sharks shed throughout their lives.

“The importance of vertebrae is they give us hints about size,” Kear said. “If you’re trying to scale it from teeth, it’s difficult. Are the teeth big and the bodies small? Are they big teeth with big bodies?”

Scientists have used mathematical formulas to estimate the size of extinct sharks like megalodon, a massive predator that came later and may have reached 17 meters (56 feet) in length, Kear said. But the rarity of vertebrae mean questions of ancient shark size are difficult to answer, he added.

The international research team spent years testing different ways to estimate the size of the Darwin cardabiodontids, using fisheries data, CT scans and mathematical models, Kear said. Eventually, they arrived at a likely portrait of the predator’s size and shape.

“It would’ve looked for all the world like a modern, gigantic shark, because this is the beauty of it,” Kear said. “This is a body model that has worked for 115 million years, like an evolutionary success story.”

The study of the Darwin sharks suggested that modern sharks rose early in their adaptive evolution to the top of prehistoric food chains, the researchers said. Now, scientists could scour similar environments worldwide for others, Kear said.

“They must have been around before,” he said. “This thing had ancestors.”

Studying ancient ecosystems like this one could help researchers understand how today’s species might respond to environmental change, Kear added.

“This is where our modern world begins,” he said. “By looking at what happened during past shifts in climate and biodiversity, we can get a better sense of what might come next.”

Varieties

Move over Larry: Maximus the PM's Cat Grabs Belgium Spotlight

Larry the Downing Street cat is a global celebrity in his own right, with more than 900,000 followers on X. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP/File
Larry the Downing Street cat is a global celebrity in his own right, with more than 900,000 followers on X. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP/File
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Move over Larry: Maximus the PM's Cat Grabs Belgium Spotlight

Larry the Downing Street cat is a global celebrity in his own right, with more than 900,000 followers on X. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP/File
Larry the Downing Street cat is a global celebrity in his own right, with more than 900,000 followers on X. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP/File

It is no secret that a tabby named Larry wields considerable power in Downing Street. Now in Belgium, a rescue cat named Maximus has shot to social media stardom as bewhiskered sidekick and PR weapon of Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

Taken in from a shelter by the Flemish conservative leader over the summer, the grey fluffball has become a fixture on Instagram -- snapped batting at string or lolling around in the boss's office.

But while Larry has risen above politics as Chief Mouser to six British prime ministers, the adventures of De Wever's four-legged friend come with a dose of salty commentary on Belgium's turbulent public life, said AFP.

Cartoon bubbles have captured Maximus musing sardonically -- in Flemish -- on everything from the country's long-running budget showdown to strikes over his boss's austerity measures, or a new voluntary military service for young Belgians.

'Maximus, can you catch a drone?'

Less than six months after his account went live in July, Maximus has caught up with his master when it comes to Instagram followers.

The account name -- @maximustp16 -- stands for "Maximus Textoris Pulcher", a cryptic reference to that of his boss, which means "The Weaver" in Dutch.

Those in the know say the fel-influencer's posts are put up by the prime minister's personal assistant.

But the Belgian leader -- known for his deadpan sense of humor -- is also pretty prolific online, and regularly cross-posts with the cat's account when he wants to strike a lighter note.

Since taking office in February, De Wever has posted a whole series of vignettes of himself with Maximus, pushing him in a stroller or taking a nap by his side.

His first response in October to the news of a foiled plot to attack him using drone-mounted explosives?

A post showing the prime minister and reclining cat with the cartoon caption "Maximus, can you catch a drone?"

"No -- but I'm catching dreams like no one else!" the mog replies.

'Noise and hot air'

All good fun, but what is the strategy at work?

For political analyst Dave Sinardet the spoof account is chiefly a way for the 54-year-old De Wever to freshen up his public image -- and show he does not take himself too seriously.

"It's a smart way to do political PR," said Sinardet, a university professor in Brussels. "It makes politicians seem friendlier, gentler -- considering that most people see them as rational, even arrogant figures."

The Flemish nationalist faces an uphill challenge -- under fire from left-wing parties who accuse him of unpicking social protections with rolling strikes and protests targeting his government all year.

Deploying pets as political PR assets is nothing new: every US president in history, with the exception of Donald Trump, has posed with animals at the White House.

Larry the Downing Street cat is a global celebrity in his own right, with his @Number10cat account on X boasting almost 900,000 followers.

But De Wever's posts with Maximus are not to everyone's liking at home.

A video of the prime minister pretending to play "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes -- the pipe being Maximus's tail -- during tense budget talks had the opposition hissing.

"Quite the summary of their politics: noise and hot air," snapped the socialist lawmaker Patrick Prevot.

Varieties

Indonesia Floods Were 'Extinction Level' for Rare Orangutans

Residents rest as they search for the remains of their house, buried under piles of uprooted trees swept by the flash flood, in Lintang Baru village in Aceh Tamiang, northern Sumatra, on December 11, 2025. (Photo by Aditya Aji / AFP)
Residents rest as they search for the remains of their house, buried under piles of uprooted trees swept by the flash flood, in Lintang Baru village in Aceh Tamiang, northern Sumatra, on December 11, 2025. (Photo by Aditya Aji / AFP)
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Indonesia Floods Were 'Extinction Level' for Rare Orangutans

Residents rest as they search for the remains of their house, buried under piles of uprooted trees swept by the flash flood, in Lintang Baru village in Aceh Tamiang, northern Sumatra, on December 11, 2025. (Photo by Aditya Aji / AFP)
Residents rest as they search for the remains of their house, buried under piles of uprooted trees swept by the flash flood, in Lintang Baru village in Aceh Tamiang, northern Sumatra, on December 11, 2025. (Photo by Aditya Aji / AFP)

Indonesia's deadly flooding was an "extinction-level disturbance" for the world's rarest great ape, the tapanuli orangutan, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects, scientists warned on Friday.

Only scientifically classified as a species in 2017, tapanulis are incredibly rare, with fewer than 800 left in the wild, confined to a small range in part of Indonesia's Sumatra.

One dead suspected tapanuli orangutan has already been found in the region, conservationists told AFP.

"The loss of even a single orangutan is a devastating blow to the survival of the species," said Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder and chairman of the Orangutan Information Centre in Indonesia.

And analysis of satellite imagery combined with knowledge of the tapanuli's range suggests that the flooding which killed nearly 1,000 people last month may also have devastated wildlife in the Batang Toru region.

The scientists focused on the so-called West Block, the most densely populated of three known tapanuli habitats, and home to an estimated 581 tapanulis before the disaster.

There, "we think that between six and 11 percent of orangutans were likely killed," said Erik Meijaard, a longtime orangutan conservationist.

"Any kind of adult mortality that exceeds one percent, you're driving the species to extinction, irrespective of how big the population is at the start," he told AFP.

But tapanulis have such a small population and range to begin with that they are especially vulnerable, he added.

Satellite imagery shows massive gashes in the mountainous landscape, some of which extend for more than a kilometer and are nearly 100 meters wide, Meijaard said.

The tide of mud, trees and water toppling down hillsides would have carried away everything in its path, including other wildlife like elephants.

David Gaveau, a remote sensing expert and founder of conservation start-up The Tree Map, said he was flabbergasted by the before-and-after comparison of the region.

"I have never seen anything like this before during my 20 years of monitoring deforestation in Indonesia with satellites," he told AFP.

The devastation means remaining tapanulis will be even more vulnerable, with sources of food and shelter now washed away.

Over nine percent of the West Block habitat may have been destroyed, the group of scientists estimated.

In a draft paper shared with AFP and set to be published as a pre-print in coming days, they warned the flooding represents an "extinction-level disturbance" for tapanulis.

They are urging an immediate halt to development in the region that will damage remaining habitat, expanded protected areas, a detailed survey of the affected area and orangutan populations and work to restore lowland forests.

The highland homes currently inhabited by tapanulis are not their preferred habitat, but it is where remaining orangutans have been pushed by development elsewhere.

Panut said the region had become eerily quiet after the landslides.

"This fragile and sensitive habitat in West Block must be fully protected by halting all habitat-damaging development," he told AFP.