Saudi Arabia wants to plant ten billion trees this decade to reduce its carbon footprint and combat erosion. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announced this on Saturday. The country wants to reduce CO2 emissions by half in the coming years and encourage other countries in the Middle East to make similar plans.
Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter in the world, is aware, according to the crown prince, that the country with its oil and gas industry must take extra steps in the fight against the climate crisis.
Moreover, it wants to play a leading role in the greening of the Middle East. With the Green Middle East plan, Bin Salman hopes that another 50 billion trees will be planted elsewhere in the region. That would make the initiative the largest reforestation plan in the world.
How Saudi Arabia intends to proceed with reforestation is not yet clear. For example, it rains an average of twenty days per year in the country, compared to an average of 186 days with rain per year in the Netherlands.
For agriculture, Saudi Arabia therefore often uses so-called fossil water, or groundwater that has been in the ground for centuries and is no longer being replenished. As a result, some fields have to be abandoned after a number of years, because the groundwater in the soil is too low or simply used up.
– .
