SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Monday the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) represents a perfect opportunity to cultivate closer cooperation among member countries.

Sisi made the remarks during the second MGI Summit held in Egypt's coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh on the sidelines of the ongoing 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The cooperation "aimed at mobilizing more investments and providing new mechanisms for innovative financing to support our countries' projects addressing climate change, in coordination with Arab and regional financial institutions that assume an important role in this regard," Sisi noted.

The initiative also represents "an appropriate framework to boost technical cooperation and connect research centers" in regional countries on technology against climate change, he added.

Launched by Saudi Arabia in 2021, MGI was built to be a regional platform for speeding up local green transition with a clear roadmap. Among its various efforts is to plant 50 billion tress across the Middle East and facilitate collaboration to help the region achieve its targets of reducing greenhouse gases emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to the initiative's official website.

Sisi added that this initiative aimed to deliver much-needed climate actions in the Arab world and in the Middle East region, two vulnerable regions under the impacts of climate change, where agricultural land was getting less fertile while heatwaves and droughts were on the rise.

Meanwhile, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, who co-chaired the MGI Summit, said continued regional cooperation and active contributions by member countries are needed to achieve global climate goals and accelerate the implementation of commitments as part of international agreements.

In his opening address, bin Salman announced that Saudi Arabia will establish and host a dedicated MGI Secretariat and will allocate 2.5 billion U.S. dollars to support MGI projects and governance.

Initiated by Saudi Arabia, the first MGI summit was held in the kingdom's captial of Riyadh in October 2021 to unite leaders across the Middle East region to achieve the common goal of combating climate change, said the MGI website. Enditem

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