The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud affirmed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's presidency of the G20 encouraged the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) approach through which emissions could be managed in a comprehensive and integrated manner with the aim of mitigating the effects of climate challenges, making energy systems cleaner and more sustainable and enhancing security and stability energy markets. During the second side event of "Safeguarding the Planet" on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud delivered the following speech as follows: Your Majesties, Excellencies, and Highnesses, Dear participants, Peace be upon you, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the second side event which will focus on safeguarding the planet within the framework of the circular economy. At the time we are recovering from the implications of the pandemic, we have to provide the suitable circumstances ensuring to find a solid, inclusive, balanced and sustainable economy through human empowerment, safeguarding the planet, and forming new horizons to realize opportunities of the 21st century for all. The preservation of the planet represents the utmost importance. With the increase of emissions due to the economic growth, we have to be pioneers in adopting sustainable, realistic and cost-effective methodologies for achieving the ambitious climate's goals. From this standpoint, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's presidency encouraged the circular carbon economy's framework through which emissions can be managed in a comprehensive and integrated manner with the aim of mitigating the effects of climate challenges, making energy systems cleaner and more sustainable, and enhancing the security and stability of the energy markets. The countries will be able to adopt and enhance technologies that are compatible with the paths that the countries choose for energy transformations via pillars of the circular carbon economy, as these pillars represent a comprehensive, integrated and realistic methodology enabling the utilization of all emissions management's options in all sectors. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will launch the National Program for the Circular Carbon Economy to consolidate and accelerate the current efforts to achieve sustainability in a comprehensive manner. We call on other countries to work with us to achieve the goals of this program in order to address the climate change with developing the economy and increasing the human prosperity. In 2012, we launched the National Energy Efficiency Program, as this is a cornerstone of the efforts to reduce emissions within the principle of a circular carbon economy. We also have several initiatives concerned with carbon capture and conversion into valuable raw materials. This includes the world's largest facility for filtering carbon dioxide, which was built by the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) with 500,000 tons per year in addition to the Saudi Aramco's plan of enhanced oil recovery by 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Likewise, we are developing the largest green hydrogen facility in NEOM. Realizing the important role of the carbon sequestration process through nature, we called for adopting an ambitious goal of safeguarding, reclaiming and managing one billion hectares of the degraded lands in a sustainable manner by 2040. In addition, we have big plans for the renewable energy sources, including the wind and solar energy, which will represent 50% of the energy used to produce electricity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by 2030. In this regard, we will hear a number of initiatives and ambitions from their Majesties, Highnesses and Excellencies Thank you.
