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Monday, 16 January 2023

TODAY: South Korea signs 13 MoUs with UAE + Holland explores green hydrogen exports from Abu Dhabi

Good morning, nice people. We’re kicking off a new business week with a few key updates from UAE and Saudi Arabia, and an update on agreements from last week’s mining forum in the Kingdom. Let’s jump right in.

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY- South Korea and the UAE signed 13 MoUs at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week yesterday, including a comprehensive energy partnership covering renewables and a potential carbon market. UAE’s Masdar also signed an agreement with the Netherlands to explore the possibility of green hydrogen exports to Europe.

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

HAPPENING TODAYThe World Economic Forum is kicking off today in Davos, Switzerland and running until Friday, January 20. The annual meeting convenes world leaders, industry veterans, and business leaders to discuss priorities for the year ahead and ramp up public-private cooperation.

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- The gig is up, Exxon: Long-held suspicions that scientists working for oil giant Exxon identified the threat of global warming as early as the 1970s have been proven correct, according to new research published in the journal Science on Friday. The research analyzed 100+ internal documents and publications produced in-house by Exxon or co-authored by Exxon scientists in independent publications from 1977-2014. It shows that Exxon “correctly and skilfully” predicted that fossil fuel emissions would cause global heating of around 0.2°C a decade — even as the company publicly cast doubt on the causal link. The story is seeing widespread coverage in the international press: Bloomberg | CNBC | LA Times | CBC | New York Times | Guardian | CNN | Harvard Gazette | BBC | Washington Post

ALSO- Climate activists took to the streets of Davos yesterday to protest the role of Big Oil at the World Economic Forum, Reuters notes. Representatives of BP, Chevron and Saudi Aramco are among the 1.5k business leaders gathering for the summit, the outlet adds.


OVER IN COP LAND- This year’s COP28 officially has a president: Adnoc and Masdar head Sultan Al Jaber — who serves as the UAE's special envoy on climate change — will preside over the upcoming UAE-hosted COP28, according to a statement released on Saturday. Al Jaber stated that the “world is way off track,” and the Global Stocktake (GST) — the process of measuring the implementation progress of the Paris Agreement targets — will be conducted at COP28 for the first time since 2015, the statement notes.

What can we expect? “Game-changing partnerships, solutions, and outcomes,” Al Jaber said, bridging the North and South, as well as the private and public sectors. For more affordable climate finance, every USD 1 of concessional funding must be matched by USD 2 or 3 in private funding, Al Jaber added, and by 2025 adaptation financing for the Global South should quadruple to USD 40 bn yearly.

The appointment is already sparking controversy: The conflict of interest has raised concerns voiced in several international news outlets like Bloomberg, MSNBC, and Euronews. Others pointed out that Al Jaber also heads Masdar and will provide a “unique combination [that] will help bring all of the necessary stakeholders to the table,” Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry tweeted last week.


PSA- Tesla customers in the UAE can get a helping (financing) hand: Dubai Islamic Bank is now offering Sharia-compliant automobile financing solutions on all Tesla models, according to a statement.

WATCH THIS SPACE #1- The UAE and India are on the brink of a “major agreement” on a renewable energy interconnection project, India’s Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh reportedly told Reuters yesterday at the International Renewable Energy Agency’s assembly. The agreement is still awaiting final approvals, Singh added, without indicating when it could be finalized. He added that it would take place within the framework of the One Sun, One World, One Grid initiative — a push to create a “more interconnected global grid,” powered by renewable energy — of which India is a steering member.

WATCH THIS SPACE #2- Egypt streamlines environmental approval process for industrial projects: The Egyptian Environment Ministry has reduced the approval time for industrial project permits down to seven business days in a bid to encourage investment, according to a cabinet statement released last week. The approvals process previously took up to 30 working days. Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad also discussed potential private sector investments in Egypt’s soon-to-be-launched voluntary carbon market as well as waste-to-energy projects.

Why does this matter? Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone signed seven MoUs worth at least USD 83 bn to set up green hydrogen and ammonia production facilities last November at COP27. The Environment Ministry’s new process is an additional approach to paving the way for Egypt’s incoming renewables production industry, building on the country’s “golden licenses”— or single approval licenses — particularly as China and South Korea are reportedly eyeing Egypt as a potential hub for green hydrogen projects.

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THE DANGER ZONE- The world’s biggest dams are jammed with sediment, threatening global water storage losses: Global water reservoirs may lose storage capacity totalling 1.6 bn cubic meters of water — 23-28% waste in water storage volume — by 2050 due to sedimentation, according to a new study by the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health. The UN researchers studied 50k dams globally and found a 13-19% loss in storage capacity already happened in 2022 as a result of sediment clogs. Sediments are naturally driven downstream by rivers to coastal areas and water reservoirs disrupt this flow resulting in a build up of jams that block water storage capacity.

Climate-induced extreme weather events are expected to exacerbate the problem further: Floods will increase as a result of global warming, compounding the possibility of dams overflowing and leading to more sentiment buildup in water reservoirs, pushing down the generational capacity of global hydroelectric power dams, the study notes.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Bahrain will host the Energy & Sustainability Forum from next Sunday, 22 January to Tuesday, 24 January in Manama. The forum will host panel discussions on how to decarbonize the downstream industry and how to pave the way for regional net zero objectives.

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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