Global battle against greenhouse gas emissions gets Saudi Arabia’s push

The Cabinet, in its weekly meeting chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, agreed Monday with the Kingdom's call, before the 23rd World Energy Conference in Istanbul, for continuous investment in the production of oil. The Cabinet asked for the adoption of a set of measures to increase efficiency of energy consumption, including increase in the Kingdom’s utilization of solar energy under Vision 2030, as well as building on the three pillars of the country’s economy — oil and gas, chemicals and mining — and increasing its production of gas by 50 percent, to 18 billion standard cubic feet per day by 2020.
The Cabinet expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the Paris agreement to combat climate change, and its call in this regard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and not discriminate against any source of energy.
It also highlighted the Kingdom's great interest in achieving the sustainable development goals in 2030, in all their economic, social and environmental dimensions.
Essam bin Saad bin Said, acting minister of culture and information, said that the Cabinet was briefed on the Kingdom's participation in the meeting of one of the committees in the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, which discussed the issue of "Exploitation of Science and Technology for Development."
The Cabinet decided that the Kingdom will work to implement the recommendations of the meeting due to its belief in the importance of contributing to achieving the sustainable development goals, in line with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 to enhance competitiveness and raise the quality of services and economic development.
Domestically, the Cabinet praised the king for the restoration work at a number of historic mosques in the Madinah region, which was announced by Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage.
“The Cabinet praised King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid for signing an executive program with International Medical Corps to provide services in water, sterilization and environmental sanitation in a number of governorates of Yemen, as part of the royal directives to help the brotherly Yemeni people in times of crisis,” said the minister.
The Cabinet discussed Saudi Arabia’s participation in the international meeting on Syria, which was held in the Swiss city of Lausanne, along several other countries, and stressed the Kingdom’s firm position regarding maintaining Syria’s unity, stability and territorial integrity and the importance of reaching a peaceful solution to the crisis there, based on the contents of the Geneva I meeting and other relevant international resolutions on Syrian,” said the minister.
The Cabinet welcomed the statement issued by the Syrian National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces after a meeting it held in Riyadh to discuss the Syrian regime and its allies, “which impede the political process by pursuing a scorched earth policy in all parts of Syria, especially in Aleppo, in blatant defiance of the international and humanitarian law”, added the minister.

Source: Arab News