Saudi Arabia invites PM Modi to participate in the Middle East Green Initiative Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to Saudi Arabia to participate in the Middle East Green Initiative Summit, which will take place in October. The country aims to acknowledge and promote regional efforts in combating climate change. 

It was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who announced the initiative in the month of March this year along with the Saudi Green Initiative. "The Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives are only a start. The Kingdom, the region and the world needs to go much further and faster in combating climate change," said the Prince.  

Under the Middle East Green initiative, Saudi Arabia plans to work with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and the Middle East to plant forty billion trees and that particular part of the world. The plan is to restore a degraded area of approximately 200 million hectares. While the Saudi Green initiative plans to plant 10 billion trees in its own territory to reduce carbon emission by more than 4 per cent.

Action against climate change has become necessary in Saudi Arabia because the region seems to lose around thirteen billion dollars annually due to dust storms. Air pollution released from greenhouse gases also reduces life expectancy in Saudi Arabia by 1.5 years.

Other leaders like Pakistan PM Imran Khan are also invited to the summit, though he was not invited to the US climate summit.