Saudi Green Initiative — National Tree-Planting & Land Rehabilitation Programme

The Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) was announced in March 2021 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, part of the wider regional Middle East Green Initiative. On-ground delivery sits with the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC), an independent government body created in 2019 under the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, headquartered in Riyadh.

Official targets are to plant 10 billion trees domestically (against a regional total of 50 billion), cut emissions by 278 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year by 2030, protect 30% of land and sea as reserves, and reach net-zero emissions by 2060.

Delivery activities are tree planting and land rehabilitation coordinated by the NCVC, backed by funding pledged across more than 85 initiatives.

As of 31 July 2025, Saudi Arabia's environment minister reported 151 million trees planted — roughly 1.5% of the 10-billion-tree domestic target — and 500,000 hectares of land rehabilitated. Protected terrestrial area is reported to have grown from 4.5% to 18.1% of the Kingdom's territory, with national parks increasing from 18 to 500. Funding disclosed by SGI stands at roughly $187-188 billion pledged across more than 85 initiatives as of late 2024, though no independent tracking of actual disbursement against these pledges was found.

Independent commentary raises two distinct concerns: Climate Fact Checks calculates that sustaining the full 10-billion-tree target would require roughly 1.53 billion cubic metres of treated sewage water per year — about a quarter of the Kingdom's current desalination output — with no disclosed independent verification mechanism for tree counts or survival. Al Jazeera's analysis, citing researchers Yara Asi and Matthew Archer, frames the initiative alongside Saudi Aramco's plan to raise oil output from 12 to 13 million barrels per day by 2027, and notes Aramco runs its own smaller '100 million trees by 2030' programme offsetting only around 45 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Given the roughly 1.5% delivery rate after more than four years and the absence of independently verified data, this is best read as an ambitious, well-funded pledge at an early, largely self-reported stage of delivery.