TODAY: Masdar beats Acwa Power in a bid to build and operate the sixth phase of Al Maktoum solar park
Good morning, wonderful people. We have a packed issue with climate updates from around the region across all facets of the industry. Shall we?
THE BIG CLIMATE STORIES- The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has selected the UAE’s Masdar to build and operate the 1.8 GW sixth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park beating Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power for the bid, and UAE’s Tabreed will sell 50% of its ownership in subsidiary Tabreed Parks Investments to a DH Investments’ subsidiary for AED 99.8 mn.
^^ We have more details on these stories and more in the news well, below.
HAPPENING TODAY- The world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier will be berthing in Oman today: The world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier, Suiso Frontier, is set to arrive at Oman’s Sultan Qaboos Port in Muscat today, Oman Daily Observer reports. The Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) manufactured vessel, which is Oman-bound following its departure from Abu Dhabi, is making its first visit to the Gulf country. The ship’s main mission is to introduce the Japanese technology for hydrogen transportation, pursue cooperation for the transportation of hydrogen, and establish global supply chains, according to the media outlet.
ALSO- We’re hearing whispers that the world’s first ever green methanol-powered container ship is set to pass through the Suez Canal today. Stay tuned for more details in tomorrow’s issue.
THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- Disaster in Maui: The death toll from Maui wildfires in Hawaii has killed 93 people, making it the deadliest wildfire in US history in over 100 years. The death toll is likely to rise as dogs trained to detect bodies continue to sweep the ruins of the historic town of Lahaina, according to officials. Rebuilding Lahaina would cost c. USD 5.5 bn, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with over 2.2k structures suffering damages or destroyed and over 2.1k acres burned. Scientists believe the deadly wildfires were aggravated by several factors including climate change, with soaring global temperatures and drought turning some parts of Hawaii into a tinderbox on the back of powerful winds from a nearby cyclone.
Maui dominated coverage in the international press over the weekend: Reuters | Bloomberg | The Associated Press | The Financial Times | The Guardian | The New York Times | Washington Post | The Wall Street Journal
OVER IN COPLAND- COP28 President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber was in Barbados over the weekend to meet with Prime Minister and climate champion Mia Mottley, Wam reported on Friday. During his visit, Al Jaber gave a speech to the leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), where he reiterated the importance of closing the global climate finance gap, while praising Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative which presents ways to reduce “excessive risks” that developing countries have to take to borrow to fund green investments. During his speech, Al Jaber said that he has called on donor countries to “show him the money” when it comes to the long overdue USD 100 bn annual climate finance pledge that developed countries have promised developing economies.
UAE-Caribbean climate cooperation is growing: Masdar is set to drive 16 renewable energy projects across CARICOM through its UAE-Caribbean Renewable Energy Fund, the company said. However, Al Jaber noted that the cost of capital is proving a stumbling block to progress the renewables projects between the two countries.
ALSO- Al Jaber praised Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for his policies prioritizing indigenous peoples on the closing day of the Amazon rainforest summit, adding the policies serve as a blueprint for other regions, Wam reported last week. “We will build on the experience and the lessons that the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation and Indigenous Peoples can teach us in advancing the dual goal of protecting and restoring nature, while advancing sustainable development,” Al Jaber said, adding that although indigenous communities represent 5% of the world’s population, they protect over 80% of biodiversity.
FROM THE DEPT OF GOOD NEWS- FSO Safer is nearly cleared: A UN-led salvage operation to remove over 1 mn barrels of crude oil from the rusting supertanker FSO Safer has nearly finished, according to a UN press release. The 47-year-old FSO Safer was abandoned off the coast of Yemen at the start of the country’s civil war in 2015, and was at risk of leaking, breaking apart, or exploding, resulting in “catastrophic environmental and humanitarian consequences,” the UN said. A UN salvage team has been unloading the oil from Safer onto a replacement oil tanker The Nautica since late July in an operation costing USD 140 mn. Less than 2% remains of the 1.1 mn barrels of oil that were on the tanker. Some USD 20 mn is required to complete the operation, the UN said.
WATCH THIS SPACE #1- Egypt’s GAFI ❤️ investors: Egypt’s General Authority for Freezones and Investment (GAFI) has done away with some of the paperwork required by companies for a number of post-incorporation services under efforts to “improve the investment environment” by streamlining procedures, it said in a statement on Friday. Some of the documents no longer needed for submission include those related to nominating board members, holding board meetings, appointing auditors, and reporting the death of partners or shareholders. The move comes a week after it began operating its new digital platform, which provides investors with services to establish companies, authenticate contracts at notary offices, and register using electronic signatures, among other services.
WATCH THIS SPACE #2- Jordan will launch a new long-term energy strategy in 2024, Al Ghad reported last week, adding that incentives for renewable energy, power storage, and green hydrogen production will be central to the plan. The strategy has been in the pipeline for some time, Secretary General of Jordan’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Amani Azzam said, with studies for the energy sector’s development and expansion of smart power networks currently underway, she added. The kingdom is also expected to announce its green hydrogen strategy this quarter, Assistant Secretary-General of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Hassan Al-Hayari said in June.
WATCH THIS SPACE #3- UAE’s Mubadala bets on Brazil’s ethanol for biofuel production: Mubadala Capital — the asset management arm of UAE’s investor Mubadala Investments — plans to acquire a 31.5% stake in Brazilian sugarcane processor Atvos later this year or early next year, Atvos CEO Bruni Serapiao told Reuters last week. He said that his company is under bankruptcy protection, with Mubadala set to pay BRL 500 mn (c. USD 102.8 mn) when it lifts its court debt protection.
Mubadala’s going big on Brazilian green fuels: Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Capital-backed Acelen said in April that it will invest up to USD 2.4 bn over the next 10 years to produce green diesel and sustainable aviation fuel in Brazil. The new biorefinery in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia will have the capacity to produce up to 1 bn liters per year of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a diesel-like fuel that can be produced from various vegetable oils and animal fats. Earlier this year, Mubadala Capital withdrew from bidding for ethanol JV BP Bunge Bioenergia, with reports suggesting that the UAE state investor dropped out after concluding negotiations to acquire Atvos.
WATCH THIS SPACE #4- Western wind power is in trouble: Energy transition targets are at risk as supply chain strains continue to hike prices for the wind power sector, CEO of RWE Markus Krebber told Bloomberg last week. Rising inflation and strained supply chains are driving up prices for offshore wind turbines, leading to a halt in a number of large scale wind power projects in the US and the UK, Krebber says, meaning that global climate protection targets will be at risk if renewables plants don’t come online as scheduled. Swedish energy company Vattenfall said it would put three phases of the Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone in the UK on pause due to rapidly increasing costs of equipment and construction last month, hiking the project’s price tag up by GBP 3 bn to GBP 13 bn. Suppliers will need to up their production capacities fast to clear the backlog, and governments will need to extend auction lead times beyond the current average of five years to strengthen the wind power sector’s long term supply chain security, he added.
THE DANGER ZONE- “The world is likely to face major disruption to food supplies well before temperatures rise by the 1.5°C target,” the Guardian reports, citing COP15 UN Convention to Combat Desertification president Alain-Richard Donwahi. Donwahi expressed that the effects of drought are coming about more rapidly than expected given its intersections with food security, migration of population, and inflation levels. The former desertification president called for more attention to be drawn to investing in agriculture to improve yields and therefore food security.
Desertification is getting the short end of the stick: “Last year’s COP15 on desertification went largely unnoticed compared with the climate COP27 and the biodiversity COP15 last December,” the Guardian wrote, despite that it happens less frequently than other climate summits. The COP16 desertification conference will be held in Riyadh in December 2024.
IN OUR NECK OF THE WOODS- Iraq’s 50°C heat shows the “era of global boiling” has begun, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned last week, according to The National. Turk witnessed ‘the tangible effects’ of climate change firsthand during a four-day visit in Iraq last week. “Standing in searing heat in that scarred landscape, breathing air polluted by the many gas flares dotting the region, it was clear to me that the era of global boiling has indeed begun. This is a climate emergency. And it is high time it is treated like one. Not just for Iraq but for the world,” he said. Turk attributed Iraq’s climate woes to a “toxic mix” of global warming, drought, poor water management, violence, and “oil industry excesses,” the news outlet notes.
Dangerously low water levels: Turk’s statements come a day after the country’s Water Resources Ministry said that Iraq’s water levels dropped to their lowest capacities on record. Iraq is the fifth most climate-vulnerable country in the world, susceptible to climatic phenomena such as high temperatures, insufficient rainfall, drought and water scarcity, and frequent sand and dust storms. Nearly 70% of the country’s land mass is under threat of climate-induced desertification. To top Iraq’s water woes, Iran and Turkey have built dams in recent years that have affected water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which account for 98% of Iraq’s surface water. The country needs USD mns to combat desertification and is looking to raise some USD 100 mn to launch reforestation efforts and bolster food security. Iraq will only be able to meet 15% of its water demands by 2035 if current trends continue, the UN warned in May.
NON-CLIMATE REGIONAL HEADLINES:
- UAE: The Emirates refuted media reports suggesting it sent arms shipments to one of the warring parties of Sudan’s war. (Al Bayan)
- Saudi Arabia: KSA has appointed its first ever ambassador to Palestine as the US pushes with efforts on Saudi-Israel normalization. (Asharq Al Awsat)
- Egypt: Inflation accelerated at a record pace for the second month running in July, as surging food costs and the impact of a series of devaluations maintained upward pressure on prices. (Enterprise)
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IN THIS WEEK’S EPISODE- It’s the very first panel of the Enterprise Climate Forum: Egypt brought home major victories from COP27, signing framework agreements for about USD 85 bn worth of green hydrogen projects, and announcing more than USD 10 bn in funding for the Nexus for Food, Water and Energy (NWFE) program. While we have a long way to go before much of the wins from COP27 will be tangible to the private sector, the opportunities in green hydrogen and NWFE are “now.” Our panelists helped explain how these two can be made actionable. We were joined by Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe, Khalid Hamza, Director and head of Egypt at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Khaled Naguib, CEO of Hydrogen Egypt.
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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-
Sweden will host World Water Week from Sunday, 20 August to Wednesday, 24 August in Stockholm. Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the event will bring together policy makers, NGOs, and private sector players to discuss innovative solutions to managing water and how to tackle food security, biodiversity, and climate change.
The US will host the International Conference on Recycling and Waste Management and the International Conference on Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change from Monday, 21 August till Tuesday, 22 August in Philadelphia. The waste management conference will gather environmental engineers, and recycling, wastewater treatment, and climate researchers to discuss trends and innovations in plastics recycling, wastewater treatment, and renewable energy. The sustainability and climate change conference will bring together researchers and industry leaders to spotlight innovations in environmental science, climatology, renewable energy, and pollution control.
The Dominican Republic will host the COP27 Transitional Committee from Tuesday, 29 August to Friday, 1 September. The meeting aims to establish institutional arrangements, modalities, governance structures, and terms of reference for the landmark Loss and Damage Fund. It also wants to expand sources for climate funding under the program.
Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.