Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 23 October 2021 – President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and Chairman of IsDB Group, H.E. Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, says the entire community of world financiers, especially the 12 multilateral development institutions of the globe, need to go with one view which is to help those that are less able to cope with financing and to help them get over the difficulties of transitioning to a greener and more sustainable transition to energy.

Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser made the remarks while attending a panel discussion on ‘Sustainability for All’ during the Saudi Green Initiative Forum on 23^rd October 2021 in Riyadh which was graced with a keynote welcome address by His Royal Highness Prince Muhammad Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, The Crown Prince and the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and was also addressed by a host of very prominent international speakers.

At the start of his intervention, Dr. Al Jasser, as the newly elected President of the Islamic Development Bank, congratulated the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and HRH the Crown Prince, for the statements and commitments declared in the Forum and for raising the bar regionally and internationally which he described as a great contribution to  greening of the world.

“We should not allow the poorer members of communities to fall behind just because financing is not there,” Dr. Al Jasser asserted, adding: “At the Islamic Development Bank, as the only South-South multilateral development institution with 57 member countries, we are very concerned with the development of our member countries, half of whom are least developed countries.” 

He then went on to elaborate that from the outset, IsDB Group was very concerned about its member countries’ energy development as some of them did not even have access to electricity or clean cooking.

“We embarked on programs to help develop the energy sectors of these countries and provided about US$ 63 billion of financing to them since the inception of the Bank which is almost 40% of all our lending to our member countries. Since, five years ago, with the shift of the world, we have provided US$ 3 billion for financing for renewable energy as well as technical assistance to our member countries to help them develop their own strategic plans for transition to Green Energy,” the IsDB Group chairman stated. 

Elsewhere in his remarks, Dr. Al Jasser briefed the audience on how the Bank, amongst other,  has issued US$ 2.5 billion for Sustainable Sukuk as it has been working on the uses and the sources of the funds to streamline towards greener utilization. “We are very much engaged with our member countries and try to help them pass the hurdles on the way to becoming greener.” 

The Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) has been launched under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and aims to improve the quality of life and protect future generations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The 2-day Forum unveils SGI’s roadmap for delivery and highlights the Kingdom’s green efforts. Attended by global leaders from all spheres of society, the event has driven action and sparked innovative solutions to help tackle climate change.