Loss and damage financing is on the COP agenda

Good morning, wonderful people. We have a stacked issue for you this morning, between COP27 kicking off in Egypt’s Sharm El Sheikh and a handful of other green news from around the region. But first…

We’re proud to announce that the Enterprise Climate X Forum, our first industry-specific conference is, taking place on Tuesday, 6 December. It’s a C-suite event for CEOs and top execs, investors, bankers and development finance folks, and you’re going to love the venue when we unveil it next week.

The Enterprise Climate X Forum takes place a bit after COP27 for two simple reasons:

• To give us all time to catch our collective breath before we ask: Now what?
• And to serve as a bridge to COP28, keeping our industry in the spotlight for the 11 months before the world heads to the UAE.

Make no mistake: Climate will be the world’s largest and most important industry for decades to come — and is the defining challenge of our generation. It cuts across every sector, from banking and finance to infrastructure, urban planning, real estate, FMCG and beyond. Enterprise Climate and the Enterprise X Forum are the regional hub for news, views, discussion and debate about how we build this industry.

In panels, live interviews and networking sessions, the Enterprise Climate X Forum will give insiders and newcomers alike the chance to talk about how to build a climate-centered business — and how to make sure your business continues to have access to the funds it needs to grow. Expect it to be heavy on lessons learned in Egypt and other global growth markets — and lots of success stories.

Some of the biggest names in business and finance are on board — are you? The Enterprise Climate X Forum is taking place with the generous support of our friends, including:

• Banking partners: HSBC | Mashreq | Attijariwafa Bank
• Telecom partner: Etisalat by e&
• Event partners: Hassan Allam Utilities | Infinity Power

DO YOU WANT TO ATTEND? The first wave of invites is going out today and seating is limited. If you’re a C-suite exec, business owner, climate professional, DFI staff, investor or banker, please email us at climatexrsvp@enterprisemea.com to signal your interest, letting us know your name, title and where you work.

Business inquiries: Ping a note to Moustafa Taalab, our head of commercial, here.

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THE BIG CLIMATE STORY HERE AND AROUND THE WORLD- It’s all COP27, all the time. The first day of the gathering — before the world leaders’ summit gets underway today — hit the ground running with Egyptian Foreign Minister and COP27 President Sameh Shoukry announcing that loss and damage financing is now officially an agenda item at the summit. Several officials and global figures, including UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and outgoing COP President Alok Sharma, also stressed on the need to put words into immediate action.

It’s the official opening ceremony of COP27 today, marking the start of the two-day leaders’ summit. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will inaugurate the two-week conference alongside UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. The session is expected to start soon after 12pm CLT (1pm KSA / 2pm UAE) and be attended by heads of state and government from across the globe, according to the agenda (pdf).

In the afternoon: COP27 President Sameh Shoukry will open the first high-level session at 14:30 CLT, which will see heads of state give statements until 18.30 CLT. Among those speaking today — according to the list of speakers (pdf):

• Arab leaders including UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune;
• European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Dutch PM Mark Rutte.
• UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak;
• Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who is on his first visit to Egypt in four years
• Isaac Herzog, president of Israel.

Also today: Saudi Arabia’s Middle East Green Initiative gets underway in Sharm.

^^ We have the full rundown of what went down on Day 1 — and what to look out for over the next few days — in the news well, below.

Do you have news coming out of COP? A top exec who would like to have a chat? Send press releases, statements, communiques and interview pitches our way on editorial@enterprise.press.

KEY COP DATES-

The Forum will take place on the sidelines of COP27 this Friday and Saturday, 11 and 12 November in Sharm el Sheikh. The forum will tackle emissions reduction, renewables, clean hydrogen production, the circular carbon economy, sustainability, the importance of climate finance, and the role of the private sector.

Among the days and themes that we think are most relevant to MENA business leaders:

• World leaders’ summit: 7-8 November (more details here)
• Finance day: 9 November
• Decarbonization day: 11 November
• Saudi Green Initiative: 11-12 November
• Adaptation and agriculture day: 12 November
• Water day: 14 November
• Energy day: 15 November

Detailed schedule: Download as a pdf here or check out the website here.

COP27 app for attendees: App Store and the Google Play Store.

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WATCH THIS SPACE #1- UAE’s Empower has put more shares into its IPO offering, now shopping as much as 20% of the company on the back of high demand, with “oversubscription across all tranches,” the company announced on Friday without disclosing the oversubscription rate. The initial public offering was originally set to see Empower sell a 10% stake before it raised the stake size (pdf) to 15% last week. The company priced its initial public offering at AED 1.31-1.33 per share last week and the subscription period closes today for UAE retail investors and tomorrow for other qualified investors.

WATCH THIS SPACE #2- UAE’s Adnoc signs energy agreements worth AED 35 bn: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has signed agreements with 25 companies including Siemens and Halliburton to localize the manufacturing of energy-related products, the state-owned company said in a statement last week. The products include compressors, pipeline inspection gauges, and specialist valves. The agreements fall under the “Make it in the Emirates” initiative focusing on 11 different sectors to develop national industry.

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CLIMATE DIPLOMACY-

UAE, US continue discussions for USD 100 bn PACE partnership: US President Joe Biden and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met last week to discuss renewable energy and carbon emissions management projects under the PACE agreement, WAM reports. Al Nahyan briefed Biden on the UAE’s funding and assistance for clean energy projects across six continents including dozens of small island developing states in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean in addition to a number of projects across the US. PACE’s goal is to accelerate the rollout of low-carbon energy with an eye to seeing an additional 100 GW of clean energy generation capacity built around the world by 2035.

KSA to work with Finland on sustainable projects: A Saudi delegation led by the Kingdom’s Commerce Minister, Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, signed five MoUs during a four-day visit to Helsinki, the Saudi Press Agency reports. The delegation explored avenues for cooperation in sustainable technologies, sustainable mining, and smart cities. No details on the MoUs were provided.

Saudi Arabia is also in talks with the Netherlands on energy: Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman held a virtual meeting with his Dutch counterpart to discuss further cooperation on energy, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday, without providing details.

Morocco turns to the UK for renewables investments: Morocco hosted an event at its embassy in London to attract investments in its southern provinces, Morocco World News reports. The country is looking to drum up investments in solar, wind, and hydro.

Iraq in talks with Turkey over water security, seeking its “fair share” of water from the Tigris River with Turkey, the National quotes Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Aoun Diab as saying. Turkey says it will “co-operate with Iraq and exchange visits to reach understandings for a fair share,” according to a cabinet statement. Water storages stemming from climate-induced weather events and upstream countries’ dams in Turkey and Iran are threatening Iraq’s ability to shore up water supplies for irrigation and potable consumption.

Go deeper: Read our two-part analysis of Iraq’s water crisis here and here.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The Hawkamah Annual Conference (Building Investor Confidence Through Governance) will kick off next Tuesday, 15 November in Dubai. The conference will address governance from the perspective of investors including expectations and interaction with boards as well as the role of regulators and companies in preparing for IPOs to attract the right investors.

Saudi Arabia’s Education Ministry will host the Global Conference on Sustainable Partnerships on Wednesday, 23 November to Thursday, 24 November in Riyadh, bringing together ministers and senior officials from the private and public sectors.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

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YOU’RE READING ENTERPRISE CLIMATE, the essential regional publication for senior execs who care about the world’s most important industry. Enterprise Climate covers everything from finance and tech to regulation, products and policy across the Middle East and North Africa. In a nod to the growing geographical ambitions of companies in our corner of the world, we also include an overview of the big trends and data points in nearby countries, including Africa and southern Europe.

Enterprise Climate is published at 4am CLT / 5am Riyadh / 6am UAE Monday through Thursday by Enterprise, the folks who bring you Enterprise Egypt, your essential 6am and 3pm read on business, finance, policy and economy in Egypt and emerging markets.

Subscribe to Enterprise Climate here or reach out to us on climate@enterprisemea.com with comments, suggestions and story tips.

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Nations will discuss loss and damage financing for the first time at COP27: A “breakthrough” agreement allowing diplomats to officially debate for the first time who should pay for damage sustained by the countries most vulnerable to climate change was announced on the first day of COP27 yesterday.

High drama: The agreement was hashed out during two days of fraught preliminary talks which saw the opening plenary session delayed for hours, with negotiators unable to agree on whether to put it on the agenda.

The goal: Delegates are aiming to reach a conclusive decision on loss and damage “no later than 2024,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister and COP27 President Sameh Shoukry said in his opening speech (watch, runtime: 14:19), during which he emphasized the talks would be constructive and focused on “cooperation and facilitation” rather than “liability and compensation.”

Progress: The agreement “creates for the first time an institutionally stable space on the formal agenda of the COP and the Paris Agreement to discuss the pressing issue of funding arrangements needed to deal with existing gaps in responding to loss and damage,” Bloomberg reported Shoukry saying.

But it’ll be a tough two weeks ahead: Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at the non-profit Climate Action Network International, described the weekend’s negotiations as “extremely challenging,” and others are voicing trepidation about the likelihood of an agreement over the next two weeks. “This is going to be a difficult COP,” one delegate told the Guardian.

A showdown has been brewing for some time: Wealthy nations have opposed official discussions on climate compensation for over a decade and at COP26 blocked a proposal for a dedicated loss and damage financing body, supporting instead a dialogue for funding discussions to take place over three years. With rich nations already being accused of “bullying” poorer countries during the weekend’s talks, expect the question of who pays for the climate crisis to be a major source of tension at this year’s summit.

Climate finance has been a key area of focus for policymakers in the run-up to the summit, with Egypt climate czar Mahmoud Mohieldin being particularly vocal in calling for compensation for climate change-driven damage and a funding shift away from debt, towards investment (here and here).

FACING “CLIMATE CHAOS”

Another note hit hard and early yesterday: The urgent need for action in the face of “climate chaos.” COP27 must spur urgent and credible climate action, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message yesterday, terming the UN’s newly-released State of the Global Climate Report 2022 a “chronicle of climate chaos” (watch, runtime: 1:11). Guterres echoed the message of special representative for the COP27 presidency Wael Aboulmagd, who emphasized the importance of implementation to reporters over the weekend.

And the importance of moving beyond COP26 pledges: It’s time to start delivering on the Paris Agreement and other previously agreed climate pledges, Aboulmagd said. Last year’s summit in Glasgow saw several important pledges agreed on, including “phasing down” the use of coal, halting deforestation by 2030, slashing methane emissions by 30% by 2030, and submitting updated national plans with more ambitious targets.

Passing the torch: Yesterday saw outgoing COP President Alok Sharma hand the presidency to Shoukry, who chaired the opening plenary session.

Sharma also warned against delaying action: “Our shared long-term future does not lie in fossil fuels,” Sharma said in his address yesterday. While “every major report published this year underscores the point that progress has been made … there is so much more to be done in this critical decade,” Sharma added.

PAYING THE BILL

You can expect to hear lots more about climate finance and the need for implementation over the next two weeks. These were two major conference themes out of four flagged in EnterpriseAM’s pre-COP roundup yesterday. To that end:

DFIs ready to scale up mitigation and adaptation support: A group of leading development finance institutions have pledged to expand support to countries for mitigation and adaptation in the face of climate change.

Who’s on board: The African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank, and the World Bank will help countries and other clients include adaptation and mitigation into their overall economic planning, offering support in areas including policymaking, investment plans and securing funding sources, they said in a joint statement (pdf) yesterday. Boosting adaptation finance for low-income countries, island states, and vulnerable populations, and increasing concessional finance will be among their priorities, it added.

By the numbers: Last year, the lenders collectively channeled USD 51 bn in climate finance to low- and middle-income countries — split 65% for mitigation and 35% for adaptation, according to the EBRD. Some USD 31 bn went to high-income countries, with 95% earmarked for mitigation and 5% for adaptation. They mobilized a further USD 41 bn of private finance.

KSA enters JV with Taiwan’s Foxconn on EVs: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has set up Ceer, a joint venture with Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Company (Foxconn) to design, manufacture, and sell EVs in Saudi Arabia, according to a PIF statement last week.

Introducing Ceer: The new company is expected to contribute USD 8 bn to Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2034, the statement says, netting over USD 150 mn in foreign direct investment and creating up to 30k jobs. The EVs are set to hit the market in 2025.

BMW tech will be included: Ceer will license component technology from BMW to use in the development process, according to the statement. Foxconn will develop the “electrical architecture” of the EVs — which will be designed and manufactured in Saudi Arabia — featuring infotainment, connectivity, and autonomous driving tech, it adds.

It's part of Saudi’s diversification strategy: PIF’s strategic investment in “promising sectors” aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy, the statement notes. PIF invested over USD 1 bn in Lucid Motors in 2018, and construction of the company’s Saudi Arabia production plant began in May this year. 80% of all EVs produced by US-based EV manufacturer Lucid Motors will be made in Saudi Arabia by 2030 with 155k EVs produced annually in Saudi Arabia by 2025.

Other MENA countries are working to board the EV train: Turkey unveiled its first locally-produced EV in October, due to go on sale in 3Q 2023 with some 1 mn cars expected to be produced by the end of the decade. Egypt has also been trying for years to bring on board a foreign manufacturer to help state-owned El Nasr Automotive produce an Egyptian EV. There’s clearly appetite: 90% of respondents to Enterprise’s recent EV survey plan to buy an EV within the next 10 years.

Egypt’s bourse forms carbon credit company: A subsidiary of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has signed an agreement with the Agricultural Bank of Egypt and Enara Group’s Libra Capital to establish Libra Carbon, the first Egyptian company to develop, manage, and issue carbon certificates, according to a joint statement.

How will it work? The company will serve as the building block for “an organized market for the trading of carbon certificates, which includes all the necessary components not only for trading but also for issuance,” Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority chief Mohamed Farid said. There are still no details on how the company plans to value, issue, and allow the trading of carbon credits.

Explainer: Read more about what Egypt’s local carbon exchange could look like in EnterpriseAM’s recent Going Green vertical.

Expect a regional carbon exchange to follow: The move is a first step towards developing a voluntary, Africa-wide carbon credit exchange to encourage and diversify investment in the continent’s green economy, Egypt’s EGX head Rami El Dokany said in the statement. Egypt’s Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad said Egypt would launch the exchange — which has been in the works since 2018 — at COP27.

There’s a growing market for carbon credits — but it needs standardizing: “The volume of transactions associated with carbon certificates is growing at 20x annually,” Bloomberg Asharq quotes COP climate czar Mahmoud Mohieldin, who attended the signing ceremony, as saying. But trading prices vary widely, with a certificate for one ton of carbon emissions selling for anything from USD 2 to USD 100 across the continent, he added. The regional exchange will look to standardize prices.

Carbon markets have also been picking up steam across the region, with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) setting up a regional voluntary carbon market company last month. The company kicked off the world’s largest credit auction, facilitating an auction of 1 mn tons of carbon credits. Meanwhile, Singapore is looking to buy carbon credits from Morocco and other countries outside the region as the Asian country looks to reduce its emissions.

Abu Dhabi-based ADQ, France’s Veolia Middle East, and KSA’s Vision Invest will acquire Adnoc Refining’s waste management operations, Adnoc Refining announced on Thursday. The consortium will own and operate two waste management plants built to treat and dispose of waste produced from Adnoc’s oil and gas extraction and refining processes in Abu Dhabi, according to the statement. Adnoc Refining did not disclose the value or projected timeline for the transaction.

The buyers: Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ is a holding company with a portfolio spanning several industries ranging from sustainable energy to mobility and logistics. Vision Invest — previously known as Acwa Holding — is a Saudi Arabian holding company. Veolia Middle East is a resource management firm specializing in environmental services such as municipal water and wastewater treatment plants.

About Adnoc Refining: The refinery is a joint venture between UAE-owned Adnoc, Italian energy giant Eni, and Austria-based integrated oil and gas company OMV. The refinery was established in 1982 and is reportedly the world’s fourth largest single-site refinery where liquefied petroleum gas, unleaded gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other fuels are produced.

Tadawul-listed Acwa Power enters Indonesia: Indonesia’s state-owned electricity utility company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has tapped Acwa Power to develop two floating solar PV solar projects worth USD 105 mn, according to a company statement.

The details: The floating projects will yield 60 and 50 MW of AC power (MWac) each and will be the first of their kind for Acwa Power, whose equity in the projects amounts to 49%. The majority stake will be held by Indonesia Power — a subsidiary of PLN.

Indonesia has a renewables target: The country’s National General Energy Plan aims to secure 23% of Indonesia’s energy needs from renewables by 2025.

IN CONTEXT– Entry into the Indonesian market is one of many moves planned to take, in addition to eyeing a project in Thailand, CEO Paddy Padmanathan told Arab News last month. Acwa Power is also mulling new projects in existing markets like Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Morocco, Senegal, and Egypt. The energy giant’s 700 MW solar power plant in Dubai is set to come online in 2023, Padmanathan said.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has issued a series of binding regulations to promote sustainable finance, according to a circular (pdf) released last week. The regulations come in a bid to realize sustainable development goals after a recent bank survey indicated sustainable finance activities in banks needed to be bolstered by a “binding framework.”

What do the regulations mean for banks in Egypt? The regulations mandate that all banks operating in Egypt will establish an independent unit to overlook sustainable and sustainable finance by 1 April, 2023 and submit quarterly and yearly reports tracking their sustainable finance activities by 31 March of each year starting 2024. Each bank will hire an Environment Ministry-certified consultant to assess environmental risks for major projects seeking funding starting July 2023 and incorporate sustainable finance policies into lending and investment.

Acwa Power reported SAR 341.7k in net income after Zakat and tax in 3Q 2022, reversing its net loss position of SAR 27k during the same quarter last year, according to its earning release (pdf). Revenues for the quarter came in at SAR 1.26 mn, remaining essentially flat y-o-y. The improvement in Acwa’s bottom line was mainly due to lower development costs, provisions and write-offs in 3Q 2022 compared to 3Q 2021, higher-than-normal share-based payment expenses in 3Q 2021 following the company’s IPO, and increased income from a higher fair value of its derivatives, the earnings release noted.

On a nine-month basis, Acwa’s net income jumped 110% y-o-y to SAR 883k, on revenues of SAR 3.7 mn, slipping 1.5% y-o-y. The company attributed the higher revenues in 9M 2022 to the same factors as its improved 3Q 2022 bottom line.

Egypt’s SCZone could be getting its own investment company: Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) intends to set up an investment company to channel funds into the zone’s projects as part of a raft of measures designed to spur FDI, SCZone head Walid Gamal El Din said on Saturday. The board also discussed plans to turn the SCZone into a regional hub for green hydrogen, green ammonia and other clean energy initiatives.

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco, London-headquartered renewables company Oort Energy and UK-based energy firm Chariot will launch pilot projects to test the feasibility of implementing Oort’s patented water splitting technology in the use of large-scale green hydrogen and ammonia production, according to MEED.

Egypt's population has nearly quadrupled over the last 60 years while water scarcity continues to threaten the nation, the Washington Post reports. Between 2014 and 2021, Egypt’s birth rate has dropped 20% from 3.5 to 2.8 children per woman, WaPo reports citing CAPMAS figures. The Egyptian government continues to push family planning — including with its “Two is Enough” family planning program — as the country nears “absolute water scarcity,” according to a recent report published by UNICEF and the American University in Cairo. To manage resource shortages, the country would need to reduce yearly births by over half — 400k down from over 2 mn last year, the government has said — but over 1 mn babies were born in the past seven months alone, WaPo reports.