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Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - RIYADH: Saudi Arabia hosted World Environment Day 2024 in Riyadh on Wednesday, an event which was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and the UN’s Environment Program.

Themed “Our land, Our Future,” the event focused on the country’s ambitious sustainability initiatives and its vision for a greener future.

World Environment Day is a global event that highlights the critical environmental challenges faced by communities. 

Local and international world leaders, decision-makers and environmentalists were in attendance, including Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadli; Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Climate Envoy Adel Al-Jubeir; and Executive Director of the UN’s Environment Programme Inger Andersen.

“I think our land is our wealth and our future,” said Andersen.

“We humans are incredibly innovative and we have multiplied on this amazing Earth. We have made very sophisticated uses of land for our agriculture, and we all have to eat, but in using agriculture in a certain way we have also exhausted our lands.”

Speaking exclusively to Arab News, Andersen expressed her thoughts on some of the significant environmental issues that are affecting the region and the country.

She said: “This year, it is very suitable that Saudi Arabia is a host, a global host for World Environment Day, because Saudi Arabia is also the host for COP16, the convention on desertification. So, the theme here is about land restoration, desertification, drought resilience, and of course what country to speak better on this than Saudi Arabia?

“After all, this country lives with desert and desertification, but (is) also a country that stepped up in solidarity with many other countries, supporting other countries in the fight against desertification, but also at home doing a lot of greening and restoring ecosystems.”

The Kingdom has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years. The development of the country has included placing environmental protection and climate action at the heart of its national agenda.

To meet Saudi Vision 2030’s goals, a series of innovative programs and policies has been designed aimed at reducing carbon footprint, promoting renewable energy, and preserving the country’s unique natural landscape and heritage.

One of the features of Saudi Arabia’s environmental efforts is its commitment to the Saudi Green Initiative, a comprehensive plan to plant 10 billion trees across the country, which equates to rehabilitating more than 74 million hectares of land.

The reforestation scheme not only aims to capture and store atmospheric carbon, but also to revive fragile desert ecosystems and create new wildlife habitats. Through public-private partnerships and community engagement, the Kingdom is on its way to achieving this ambitious goal, with millions of trees already planted in the past few years.

Andersen highlighted that 45 percent of the world’s population is affected by land degradation, but nations experience different types of degradation depending on their climate and weather conditions.

She added: “We often say that restoring ecosystems is like money in the bank because your land will produce next year, and next year. It’s like a good deposit on the future.

“That is what we are asking everyone to do. Step up, engage, and restore land, and we can all do something, whether it’s the farmer in his field, whether it’s a factory that has land around it, whether it’s an urban park, whether it is our gardens, we can all do something about it.”

The Kingdom stands as a shining example of a nation that has embraced the challenge of environmental stewardship and is actively working to create a more sustainable future despite its climate challenges.

Through its bold initiatives, innovative partnerships, and steadfast commitment to environmental protection, the country is poised to become a global leader in the fight against climate change and the preservation of the planet’s precious resources, including land.

Andersen added: “The Middle East Green Initiative shows solidarity, providing funding, providing expertise and insights, and Saudi Arabia is exactly doing that, such as in the great green wall in Africa, to establish a great green belt from Senegal on one side to Somalia on the other. Saudi is one of the partners with those African countries and other global partners.

“At the end of the day, what causes environmental degradation is humans. It is not the animals doing it, not nature doing it, it is about what we do.”

She spoke of educating the next generation as that will be the generation that will learn how to live better in harmony with nature.

She also encouraged communities to reduce and eliminate unnecessary use of plastic, while making sure waste is recycled and disposed of properly, and investing in green energy to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment.

She said: “If you think about it, when is the time you were most happy? Chances are it was with people you loved, and chances are it was in a beautiful place. That beautiful place, where we find the majesty of the world, is the planet. So let us take care of it.”