Greening Saudi: 100+ million trees, 130 GW renewable target

Before

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's hottest, driest countries — and one of its largest oil producers. Both facts made climate action seem an unlikely fit. Pre-2021, the Kingdom had no unified sustainability framework, and renewables made up roughly 0% of the power mix.

Initiative

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) in March 2021, alongside the Middle East Green Initiative. The framework has four pillars: plant 10 billion trees and rehabilitate 40M hectares; protect 30% of land and sea; achieve 50% renewable electricity by 2030 (~130 GW capacity); reduce emissions 278 million tonnes/year by 2030, on a path to net-zero by 2060. Investment commitments now exceed SAR 705 billion across 86 initiatives.

Outcome

By the 4th SGI Forum (2025): 100M+ trees and shrubs planted since 2021; 118,000 hectares of degraded land rehabilitated; 6.2 GW renewable capacity already connected to the grid; 20 GW of projects launched in 2025 alone; 44.2 GW under development. Saudi Arabia built the world's largest single-phase battery energy storage system (Bisha, 2.6 GWh) in January 2025.

For citizens

Greener cities (the Green Riyadh program is reshaping the capital), cleaner air targets for the major cities, protected wadis and coral reefs, and a long-term plan that takes the dependency-on-oil question seriously. None of this will be easy in a desert climate — but the trajectory is real and visible.