The Saudi Arabian government is set to host a week-long climate event in the capital Riyadh starting Sunday in partnership with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The event, which will bring together policymakers, private sector businesses, youth activists and other key stakeholders in the field of climate change and sustainability, will be held at Riyadh City Boulevard. The “MENA Climate Week” is taking place ahead of the UN COP28 climate conference in Dubai from late November. The event in Saudi Arabia comes at a crucial time, with most countries having identified rising temperatures as a problem and having since pledged to take action to limit the effects of global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2030 and 2050. “The aim of this week is to address the complexities, challenges and opportunities of climate change and collectively offer insights that will ultimately be considered as part of the climate inventory at COP28 in November,” the Saudi Ministry of Energy said in a statement. The review quantifies global progress made against the 2015 Paris Agreement on keeping global warming temperatures under control. The event in Riyadh, which runs until Thursday, was divided into four areas of action to combat climate change: energy systems and industry; cities, urban and rural settlements, infrastructure and transport; land, ocean, food and water; and societies, health, livelihoods and economies. It is part of a series of regional climate weeks held annually in Africa; Latin America and the Caribbean; Asia-Pacific; and the Middle East and North Africa. The event will kick off with keynote speeches from Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, COP28 President-designate Sultan al-Jaber, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiello. Saudi Arabia, a leading oil producer and exporter, is among those countries that have committed to a net-zero target by 2060, with a goal of generating 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The kingdom is expected to announce projects and memoranda of understanding at the Climate Week meeting that formalize parts of its national climate change plan. In 2021, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the launch of the Saudi Green Initiative, which would focus on reducing emissions, planting 10 billion trees in the coming decades, and protecting land and the sea. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the wider Middle East and North Africa region are threatened by rising sea levels, droughts, and warmer weather. In addition to the environmental impacts, it can also affect quality of life by directly contributing to a higher cost of living, as Al Arabiya English reported in September.