Khaberni - Since its establishment in 2019, the National Center for Environmental Compliance Monitoring in Saudi Arabia has granted about 50,000 environmental permits to facilities, to oversee their compliance with environmental regulations and conditions, in addition to analyzing modern technologies and reviewing and following up on their plans, according to the center's spokesperson, Saad Al-Mutairi.
The official spokesperson and the Executive Director of Media and Institutional Communication at the National Center for Environmental Compliance Monitoring, Saad Al-Mutairi, clarified that the center has conducted more than 44,000 inspection tours since the beginning of 2025 to detect environmental violations and address them.
In a related context, Al-Mutairi confirmed that the center's strategy enhances environmental compliance, reduces pollution in environmental media, and protects natural resources through monitoring soil, water, and air quality, as well as improving human health and life quality by reducing pollutants and achieving a clean and safe environment in line with Saudi Vision 2030 targets for sustainable development.
The Environmental Compliance Center confirmed that Saudi Arabia maintains about 240 stations distributed around the country to monitor air quality, which continuously oversee air quality indicators and provide accurate data on pollution levels. Additionally, the center publishes daily air quality indices via social media and media platforms to educate the public and enable them to avoid areas experiencing high pollution levels, ensuring their health.
Meanwhile, the center employs remote sensing technology via satellites to monitor coasts and detect spills and harmful substances. It launched 35 buoys, 17 of which were installed on the coasts of the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf since the beginning of 2025, and will be completed by the end of this year, to measure temperature, salinity, turbidity, and oxygen levels, as well as to provide an indicator of spills at sea, with the aim of monitoring and analyzing marine environmental data.
The official spokesperson mentioned that the center relies on two levels of indicators to measure environmental compliance performance: the National Environmental Indicator and the Joint Sectoral Environmental Performance Indicators.
Furthermore, "Environmental Compliance" oversees 10 main components of the formula for measuring the National Environmental Performance Indicator, which is an accredited and reliable tool for assessing the state of environmental media in the Kingdom, notably including: the annual levels of fine particulate matter resulting from human activities.
Alongside the levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions, the annual percentage of completed environmental corrective action plans, the annual percentage of environmentally compliant facilities, and the percentage of real-time monitoring and control of the Kingdom's coasts.
