Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman held a meeting with Andrea Correia de Lago, President-designate of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30), scheduled to be held this year in November in Belém, in the Amazon region of Brazil.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed opportunities for cooperation in the field of climate action and joint efforts to achieve the goals and principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, to reach comprehensive, balanced, and practical outcomes that take into account the national circumstances of member states.

They also reviewed Saudi Arabia's initiatives and efforts to address the impacts of climate change, such as: exploiting renewable energy sources, managing, reducing, and removing emissions through the "Green Saudi Arabia" and "Green Middle East" initiatives, implementing the circular carbon economy approach and technologies, and other national and regional programs and initiatives.

Holding the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in the Amazon rainforest region of Brazil has symbolic significance. It harks back to the early days of international efforts to protect the environment, with the pivotal "Earth Summit" held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, which led to the establishment of three environmental treaties on climate change, biodiversity, and desertification.