Sustainable Development

The energy sector has played a crucial role in achieving Saudi Arabia's SDGs and has contributed significantly to increasing GDP volume. Engaging in cleaner energy transitions and innovatively seeking sustainability and inclusivity, line with developing and diversifying the Saudi economy, is at the top of the national political agenda. Enormous investments in the development of infrastructure of the electricity sector, have effectively contributed to significant improvements the standards of living and in the delivery of electricity to all regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including villages and hamlets. In addition to ensuring energy access for all, the Kingdom has continued to advance initiatives to improve rates of energy efficiency. In a bid to ensure continued sustainable development of the energy sector, the Kingdom seeks to further strengthen energy security through continued global collaboration, research, regional connectivity, local and international partnerships, alongside capacity building, knowledge transfer, the development of national skills and the promotion of innovation. Other essential factors to ensure the resiliency of our energy sector includes consistently seeking forward-looking, open, efficient, well-functioning, competitive and stable energy markets and to build an energy future characterized by moderate prices, reliability, and the sustainable use of all energy sources and technologies. The Kingdom is building on launched projects in the renewable sector, with the aim to exploit the Kingdom’s competitive advantages, ensure short-term and long-term energy security and make energy available at affordable and adequate prices for producers and consumers alike. Emphasis on investment in cleaner technologies and innovative tools to align with our nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement, is of exceptional importance to the Kingdom. This is reflected in principal projects for the Kingdom, such as advancing the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) through Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS), and facilitating the use of blue and green hydrogen.

Climate change is a major global challenge in the 21st century that has far reaching impacts in the short and long term on earth’s ecosystems. As such, climate change calls for concerted international efforts to actively preserve our nature. For the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, given the country’s total area of 2.4 million square kilometers, making it the 12th largest country in the world, climate change is of great concern. Accordingly, several measures have been taken by the Kingdom, to ensure we are contributing to the global solution, through adopting a number of measures to address both causes and impacts of climate change. Saudi Arabia is signatory to several international conventions and protocols on climate change. These include the Paris Climate Accord, the Kyoto Protocol and the Montreal Protocol. Vision 2030 prioritizes climate change and outlines several initiatives and policies related to it. These include the price increase introduced on consumer fuel products and the Kingdom's Environmental Strategy. In this regard, Saudi Arabia presented its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as part of its contribution under the Paris agreement, within the context of efforts of the international community for adaptation to and alleviation of climate change impacts. The Kingdom’s contributions are based on the principles of the UNFCCC, as well as the approach stated in the economic diversification initiative adopted under the relevant decisions. Saudi Arabia participates through measures and plans that are designed to pursue economic diversification and achieve mutual benefits. These benefits include avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to the impacts resulting from global warming, minimizing the impact of response measures, along with measures to counter this phenomenon. This helps the Kingdom in achieving its sustainable development goals.Measures and plans are designed to achieve ambitious mutual benefits with regards to the mitigation impacts of climate change. These include avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 130 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of emission reduction per year by 2030, in accordance with the Kingdom’s national priorities and circumstances.