The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shows great importance to conservation of the environment, its development, and protecting it from pollutants. The Kingdom follows the guidance of Islam which urges and calls for paying attention to the environment and restraining from harmful acts and making optimal use of its resources in the rightful manner.

To fulfill such objective, the Kingdom has brought a number of laws, which has entrusted several Ministries and Government entities with the responsibility of implementing such laws, as the sagacious Kingdom is well aware of the importance of conserving the environment, and has provided the General Authority of Meteorology and Environmental Protection with the full support to achieve a quantum leap in the field of environment protection and maintenance of its resources.

The Kingdom has been approved to cover the protection of the environment in the Basic Law of Governance, particularly in Article No. (32) which stipulates that the Kingdom is committed to conserve the environment and protect it, and this is in fact attributable to the KSA’s farsighted vision that the protection of the environment and curbing the effects of the atmospheric phenomena is a legislative, social, economic and moral commitment and requirement, and it is part and parcel of the sound development and planning of the Kingdom.

Consequently, the Kingdom has enacted the General Environmental law and its implementing regulations, out of the keenness of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to revamp and develop laws and legislations to make them compliant with the best international practices in line with the Vision 2030 of the Kingdom, since the environment has a major significance, as it is considered one of the key pillars of life, and a fundamental requirement for human, economic and social development.

Further, the empowered Ministry had carefully considered the laws, which are pertinent to the environment, and updated, developed and unified them under one umbrella (law), which would guarantee conservation, sustainability, and improvement of the environment components, and to make a balance between the requirements of economic development and environmental sustainability.

It is worth noting that the Environmental law comprises 49 articles. It is aimed at protecting, developing, and sustaining the environment, committing to the environmental principles, streamlining the environment sector, its activities and the related services thereto.

The law prohibits the practice of any environmental activities or those which have a negative effect on the environment, unless otherwise a permit or a license is secured.

The law also forbids performing what could pollute the environmental mediums (exosphere) and the water resources, or what could cause harms to them, or what could affect benefiting from them negatively.

The law also brings restrictions and prohibitions for exploitation, transportation, storage, sale, or promotion of any natural resources and its products, which are available in the Kingdom.

Whoever breaches the provisions of the said law or its regulations will be subject to punitive actions and penalties, either by one or more of the penalties prescribed under the law, which include a fine of no more than SAR 20 million, suspension of the license or permit for a period of no more than 6 months, or revocation of the license or permit.

Furthermore, the law includes several aspects, which contain the provisions governing the management of the ecosystems, the natural resources and maintaining its sustainability, in addition to the environment mediums and the water resources and their protection, the plant cover soils, marine and coastal environment, wildlife, sanctuaries, and the environment catastrophe and emergency.

The law has specified the violations of its provisions, the mechanism on how to control and detect them and imposition of penalties on the violators.

Eventually, we would like to illustrate the fact that the new law aims at:

• Empowering the Kingdom to realize its environmental vision and secure sustainable development in all sectors without damaging the environment.
• To fulfill the dire need to integrate and upgrade the environmental legislations in the Kingdom.
• Managing the burdens which arises in protection of the ecosystems and the natural resources, and maintaining its sustainability and curtailing the pollution factors in order to cope with the social and developmental changes and developments.

In addition, the new law shall contribute to bringing the Kingdom in line with the best rated countries in terms of conservation of the environment, sustainability of natural resources, and provision of the necessary legal framework to realize and achieve the objective