Good morning, wonderful people.

We’re looking forward to meeting many of you tomorrow at 8am at the Grand Egyptian Museum for our inaugural Enterprise Climate X Forum.

If you’re attending: Please plan to arrive on time for our 8am standing networking breakfast. Traffic in the area surrounding the GEM has been heavy of late, so you will likely want to leave a few minutes early.

** You will need a special QR code to gain admission to the GEM. Everyone who received and completed our online registration form got their QR code by email yesterday.

We regret that overwhelming demand from the community meant we could not welcome everyone who expressed interest in attending.

STAY TUNED- The Enterprise Climate X Forum is our first large-scale event, but it’s not our last. We look forward to welcoming many more of you at our slate of Enterprise X Forums coming up in 2023.

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THE BIG CLIMATE STORY- Oman’s Jindal Shadeed Iron and Steel wants to invest USD 3 bn to build a green steel plant in Duqm’s Special Economic Zone. The green hydrogen-powered plant is expected to yield 5 mn tons of steel for automotive products, wind turbines, and other goods.

ALSO- The UAE has executive regulations to make its construction sector greener. The cabinet approved regulations that are designed to lower carbon emissions in the sector.

^^ We have chapter and verse on these stories and more in the news well, below.

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- No single story leads the global climate press today, but Germany’s quest for a greener future got some ink. Germany is planning to draft climate protection contracts with companies in 2023 to rely on renewable energy sources, including hydrogen, Reuters reports. Details of the agreement are still unclear. Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck is also visiting Namibia and South Africa for five days to pursue hydrogen contracts and look at energy cooperation, Bloomberg reports.

WATCH THIS SPACE #1- The IFC will expand funding to renewables: The International Finance Corporation will allocate 35% of its investments towards environmentally-friendly sectors including renewables in MENA and beyond, its head of regional operations for MENA Sufyan Al Issa told Al Arabiya last week. Egypt particularly holds significant potential — having just pledged USD 1.1 bn wind and solar projects in the country from the IFC and others — as well as Jordan, Morocco and GCC countries.

WATCH THIS SPACE #2- Egypt’s Electricity Ministry will start allocating land for the nine green hydrogen projects signed at COP27 within the next few days, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker reportedly told local media outlet Al Mal. The cabinet had signed off last week on agreements with international power companies to construct nine green hydrogen and ammonia facilities in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, which were made during last month’s climate summit and could require as much as USD 83 bn to complete. The facilities would collectively produce up to 7.6 mn tons of green ammonia and 2.7 mn tons of hydrogen a year when fully operational.

CORRECTION- In our coverage of COP27, we incorrectly stated that the loss and damage fund COP27 delegates agreed to establish will see developed countries contributing USD 100 bn per year to support vulnerable countries. The size of the landmark fund has not been agreed upon. The USD 100 bn figure is a previous, unfulfilled pledge for developed countries to pay to developing countries for climate mitigation. The story has been updated on our website.

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CLIMATE DIPLOMACY- Jordan has agreed to cooperate with Norway in the fields of renewable energy and green hydrogen, the Jordan News Agency (JNA) reported on Saturday citing Jordan’s Energy and Mineral Resources minister Saleh Kharabsheh. Discussions included the prospect of exporting clean energy to Europe via a MENA-Europe interconnection and exploring investment in green hydrogen and renewable energy, it quotes Kharabsheh saying.

HAPPENING TODAY-

Oman is hosting a two-day green hydrogen summit today at Oman’s Convention and Exhibition Center in Muscat. The summit will discuss all aspects of the hydrogen value chain including production, transportation, and storage challenges.

WORLD CUP-

It’s day 16 of the World Cup and the third day of the knockouts (all times CLT):

• Japan v Croatia (5pm)
• Brazil v South Korea (9pm)

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Rwanda is hosting the World Circular Economy Forum from tomorrow until Thursday in Kigali. The forum — taking place in Africa for the first time — will shed light on how the circular economy can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support climate change adaptation, and protect the planet’s biodiversity.

UAE will host the Big 5 global construction impact summit this Wednesday, 7 December at the Dubai World Trade Center, bringing more than 2k exhibitors from 60 countries, as well as regional and global construction industry leaders together to discuss ways to meet local and global net zero and waste reduction targets.

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