The importance of Middle East's Green Initiative

 Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman established the Middle East Green Initiative last year to bring together influential leaders from nine different countries to coordinate their efforts in addressing climate change. Everyone acknowledges that green technologies are essential to humanity's survival in the future, and each nation has now taken steps to develop its own national policy. The Wildlife Alliance is anticipating the COP27 in Egypt this November to see the national green initiative strategies announced.

The creation of these plans necessitates a significant amount of desk-based work, fieldwork, and the development of clear implementation guidelines for businesses and the general public. Recent climate-related incidents, however, have highlighted how critical it is to move through with these plans and put them into action.

The most severe flooding ever recorded in Pakistan has been occurring since June of this year and has affected a region the size of Britain. This is the result of five times the normal amount of rain falling in Pakistan. 33 million people have been displaced, crops have been damaged, 7,000 km of roads have been demolished, 500 bridges have collapsed, and 2 million dwellings have been devastated. It could take six months for the floodwaters to recede.

Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the UN, has bemoaned the lack of attention devoted to climate change globally, especially in wealthy countries. "I have never seen climate carnage on this scale," he stated after visiting the flood disaster area in Pakistan. There are simply not enough words to express what I have seen today. This is insane and constitutes mass suicide.

Action must be taken right away to prevent other catastrophes. We should move more quickly to implement the Middle East Green Initiative's aims to increase vegetation cover and broaden protected areas, as well as reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

We need to transition to a low-carbon economy as quickly as possible, leaders agree. But in all honesty, we are all aware that this will take time. Therefore, the question still stands: What should we do now? What type of immediate action are we taking? Could we employ cutting-edge technology to directly capture carbon dioxide from the air (decarbonization)? Alternately, we could utilise solar geoengineering, which cools the Earth by releasing particles into the stratosphere that deflect some of the sun's rays back into space.

Currently, several solar geoengineering techniques are being tested. They have demonstrated a real decrease in the amount of solar radiation that reaches Earth as well as a cooling of temperatures. However, there have been unintended consequences that are beyond our control, such as crop freezing that could result in famine and rainfall disturbance that could result in droughts across vast swaths of land.

What therefore ought we do?

The Wildlife Alliance believes that carbon sequestration and the use of climate control technology are part of the solution, but they will only be effective if used in conjunction with significant efforts to expand the amount of vegetation in the world. We won't be able to reestablish global cool air currents without restoring natural vegetation.

We have amped up global warming by clearing 60 percent of the tropical belt's forest cover. The decrease of tropical forest cover around the equator has been demonstrated by NASA to have a direct impact on the climate in nations in the Northern Hemisphere. We have neglected the role that tropical rainforests play in controlling the Earth's climate for far too long. We are currently suffering as a result of the loss of the majority of these woods.

Tropical vegetation that supported cool air currents and controlled global rainfall is no longer present. For instance, European rainfall is declining and temperatures are rising as a result of deforestation in the Congo Basin. Additionally, the degradation of the Amazonian tropical forest has a direct bearing on US heat waves and droughts.

Stopping deforestation, carefully protecting the woods we now have, and quickly establishing new forests are the most practical and immediate ways to keep the Earth's temperature and rainfall at a steady level.

As a conservationist, I see the value of collaborating with governments to advance policies and support their implementation in practice. To combat deforestation, it is necessary to immediately mobilize the resources required to plant new forests more quickly and to raise more money for the direct conservation of already-existing forests.