Intended Nationally Determined Contribution of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the UNFCCC of 2015.

This INDC of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is based on the principles listed in Art.3 of the UNFCCC and the approach specified in the Economic Diversification Initiative adopted as UNFCCC decision 24/CP.18. Saudi Arabia will engage in actions and plans in pursuit of economic diversification that have co-benefits in the form of (i) greenhouse gas (GHG) emission avoidance; (ii) adaptation to the impacts of climate change; and (iii) reduction of the impacts of response measures. All this, achieving its sustainable development objectives. The measures outlined in this INDC would achieve significant annual mitigation co-benefits estimated to be up to 130 million tons of CO2eq by 2030. A dynamic baseline will be developed on basis of a combination of two scenarios. One scenario assumes economic diversification with a robust contribution of oil export revenues, and the other on an accelerated domestic industrialization based on sustainable utilization of all indigenous resources including oil, gas and minerals.
Response measures to climate change include two main fields of intervention; they are (1) economic diversification; and (2) adaptation actions. As for the first theme, its intention is to (i) implement measures that will promote and support actions in generating mitigation co-benefits in energy efficiency, focusing on three main sectors, namely industry, building and transportation that collectively account for over 90% of the energy demand in the Kingdom; (ii) implement programs for renewable energy including solar PV, solar thermal, wind and geothermal energy and waste to energy systems; (iii) promote actions to build carbon capture and storage for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions; (iv) encourage investments on exploring and producing natural gas to increase its contribution to the national energy mix; and (v) take actions to conserve, recover and reuse hydrocarbon resources and minimize flaring emissions. The adaptation measures concern (i) water and waste water management to encourage the reduction, recycle and reuse of water and wastewater in the municipal, industrial and commercial sectors, together with plans to harness new sources of freshwater, and construct additional dams for collection of drinking water and recharging of aquifers; (ii) urban planning in a manner to promote the development and use of mass transport systems in urban areas; (iii) marine protection through coastal management strategies to protect coastal infrastructures and reduce coastal erosion, increase the sinks for blue carbon, maintain related ecosystems, address the threats that climate change poses for marine livelihoods, and enhance the coral reef restoration; (iv) desertification management to promote the stabilization of sand movements around cities and roads through using green belts as barriers, enhance arid and semi-arid rural areas through natural resource conservation activities, and improve soil quality, water, pasture and wildlife resources through a system of protected areas and reserves; and (v) develop an Early Warning Systems (EWS) to reduce vulnerability due to extreme weather events.
To make agriculture more productive and sustainable, the document envisages, as mitigation co-benefits, those relating to reducing land degradation and improving land management practices, especially for agriculture and forestry consequent to the reduced desertification. Moreover, Saudi Arabia aims to create long-term partnerships with universities, research institutes and the private sector in order to enable utilization of technologies, crucial for the implementation of adaptation measures, related to irrigation and sustainable management for agriculture purposes.