Saudi officials have announced plans to spend US $92bn to transform Riyadh ahead of Expo 2030. The investment aims to make Riyadh one of the most sustainable cities through initiatives, including the King Salman Park Initiative and Saudi Green Initiative (SGI), as well decarbonisation of the urban transport – within the next seven years.

Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al Saud, the Vice Minister of Tourism, was speaking during the third edition of the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) Forum, which opened on the sidelines of COP28. Senior Saudi officials took to the stage to discuss the Kingdom’s sustainable urbanisation progress.

“One of those ways is to have more green spaces, and it’s the King Salman Park Initiative that we are going to develop in the middle of the city to enhance and create that,” she explained.

Under SGI, more than 43m trees and shrubs have been planted across the Kingdom since it was set up in 2021, with 94,000ha of degraded land (equivalent to 146,000 football fields) being rehabilitated across the country.

In his address, Saleh Al Jasser, Minister of Transportation, Saudi Arabia, highlighted some of the actions being undertaken across the Kingdom to decarbonise urban transport.

“We are implementing remote work in government agencies, which helps reduce demand for daily travel. To shift to less carbon intensive modes of transport, we have set ambitious targets to increase the share of public transport, with the Riyadh bus and metro projects well underway,” Al Jasser concluded.