More details on UAE and Korea’s renewables plans: The UAE and South Korea are forging closer links when it comes to collaboration on clean energy and climate-friendly, with news about a host of agreements announced during South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s four-day visit to Abu Dhabi, which kicked off on Sunday.

Mubadala is spearheading a USD 30 bn investment: The UAE is investing USD 30 bn in a range of sectors in South Korea — with hydrogen, solar energy and nuclear power being among the priority areas, Reuters noted South Korea’s presidential office announcing on Sunday. The investment — which UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced following a meeting with Yoon — will be led by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and other sovereign wealth funds, the newswire reported, citing a statement from South Korea’s Finance Ministry. No information has been given yet about the investment timeframe.

And we know more about those 13 signed MoUs: The 13 agreements signed on Sunday include one on cooperation in water resources between the UAE’s Energy and Infrastructure Ministry and South Korea’s Environment Ministry, according to a Wam statement. An MoU covering hydrogen use in cities and its production, transmission, and storage was signed between the UAE’s Energy Ministry and South Korea’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry — though we don’t know whether the two countries intend to produce green, blue, or gray hydrogen. Another MoU directed towards setting up joint strategic working groups for a Carbon Neutrality Acceleration Program was “exchanged” by Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Korea Electric Power Corporation, and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, the Wam statement noted. Other agreements also spanned smart farming and carbon capture, utilization, and storage, we noted yesterday.

One of these agreements involves creating a carbon credit market in Asia: South Korean telecoms group SK Group has signed a partnership agreement with Mubadala to set up a voluntary carbon market in Asia, it announced yesterday, according to daily newspaper the Korea Herald. The two entities now aim to form a working group to build the partnership, officials from SK are reported to have said.

Among the key issues to be ironed out? The usual sticking points like how carbon offset projects can be certified, building market transparency, and engaging more public and private sector participants.

Voluntary carbon markets are currently seeing a surge in popularity in MENA, with Egypt’s EGX set to launch Africa’s first voluntary carbon market in mid-2023 and the UAE’s ADGM said to be working on a framework for the first-ever regulated voluntary carbon market. A new carbon market company set up by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund auctioned 1.4 mn tons of carbon credits at Davos in the Desert in October.