Remarks by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II Middle East Green Initiative Summit

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,

Grace be to God, and prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Mohammad.

Your Highnesses, Excellencies,

Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.

First, I would like to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and my dear brother, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for organising this summit on climate change—the most urgent challenge of our times.

Unfortunately, this challenge does not receive the attention it demands, although the holy books of the monotheistic faiths all call for safeguarding the environment and tie it to faith. Islam, for example, forbade the cutting of trees, wasting water, or even hunting at certain times. This is the culture of conscientious, reasonable human beings.

Therefore, we hope that the outcomes of this summit go beyond this region, because the impact of climate change knows no borders, and we must all work to counter this challenge.

In Jordan, we face various climate challenges, foremost of which is water scarcity. Our resources have been severely strained as a result of receiving wave after wave of refugees over the past decade.

Nevertheless, we have not lost sight of the importance of safeguarding our environment. Our 2021-2025 Green Growth National Action Plan covers multiple sectors, including agriculture, energy, water, and waste management.

Our 2030 nationally determined contributions represent our commitment to stay the course and be an active mitigation and adaptation regional and global partner in facing up to climate change.

And we see signs of hope in our region in this same context, such as the green projects springing up in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to create great opportunities for the private sector and hundreds of thousands of jobs, while safeguarding the environment.

Your Highnesses, Excellencies,

We hope that today, an agreement will be reached on adopting government-level policies to counter the impact of climate change by utilising modern low-water, high-yield farming practices, maintaining the transformation into renewable energy, promoting the use of electric vehicles, and turning waste into an energy source.

Let us put the right policies in place, offer sustainable financing, and rise up to face climate change.

We must also not forgot to change the common perception of this challenge, so let us develop educational systems to contribute to offering solutions to counter this global phenomenon.

We owe this to current and future generations.

Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.