TODAY: A new mega battery industrial hub for Morocco + Amazon buys solar from Abdul Latif Jameel-backed FRV
Good morning, ladies and gents. We have a hefty issue with updates over the past couple of days to catch up on, let’s dive right in.
THE BIG CLIMATE STORY- Morocco-based pan-African investment fund Al Mada is partnering with Chinese battery giant CNGR Advanced Material Company to build a USD 2 bn industrial base for battery parts production and recycling in Morocco.
^^ We have more detail on this story and much more in the news well, below.
THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- Climate takes center stage at UN General Assembly ahead of COP28: Plans on emissions reduction, a fossil fuel phase out, and improved climate financing for the global south took center stage at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) earlier this week ahead of COP28. World leaders including US President Joe Biden highlighted the impact global warming has on both the global economy and vulnerable communities. “Record-breaking heat waves in the United States and China. Wildfires ravaging North America and southern Europe. A fifth year of drought in the Horn of Africa. Tragic, tragic flooding in Libya. Together these snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and begin to climate-proof the world,” Biden said. Current global climate action is falling “abysmally short” of meeting the Paris-agreed net-zero target and 1.5 C warming threshold, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned at the UN meeting.
There were some notable no shows at the UN’s Climate Ambition Summit: The UN selected 34 states to lead the Climate Ambition Summit — which kicked off yesterday — in a bid to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, but China, the US, and the UAE were either excluded or showed no interest in spearheading talks on a fossil fuels phasedown. Notable participants in the UN chief’s planned climate talks include COP30 host Brazil, Canada, the EU, Pakistan, and South Africa, as well as non-member financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. US Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry is expected to make an appearance, his office noted he will not be delivering a speech.
The news grabbed ink across the international outlets: Reuters | Bloomberg | Financial Times | The Guardian
WATCH THIS SPACE #1- Egypt’s SCZone in talks with Shell on a green fuels partnership: The head of Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) Walid Gamal El Din met with executives from Shell to discuss potential partnership agreements to accelerate the port’s green fuel storage and production capacity, according to a statement. Egypt is looking to capitalize on progress made last month in the green hydrogen logistics sector, after Dutch-based chemicals producer OCI Global completed a six-hour refueling operation in East Port Said for the world’s first green methanol-powered ship. The SCZone has also begun talks with an unnamed Dutch developer to upscale its carbon capture capacity as part of its decarbonization targets, the statement notes. Earlier this month, Gamal El Din signed a letter of intent with Dutch-based developer Soluforce to establish a corridor facilitating the export of green fuels from Egypt to the Netherlands.
WATCH THIS SPACE #2- New EU regulations could hamper hydrogen industry growth: Europe’s nascent hydrogen industry is ready to fight the European Commission (EC) over a new set of regulations that businesses argue would hinder the clean fuel’s growth, Bloomberg reports. The proposed directives stipulate that third-party access to terminals must be “ensured”, meaning investors would have to make any and all spare supply of green hydrogen available for purchase on the market. In a bid to uphold fair competition, broad market access could be made mandatory.
The new rules could scare away investors: Plans by Germany-based Mabanaft to build an ammonia-to-hydrogen conversion facility at the German port of Hamburg by 2026 have been halted amid discussions with the EC, sources say. Mabanaft says that in order to secure bank financing, it would need to strike long-term contracts of around 20 years for all capacities. The developers are arguing that the EC’s regulations would severely hinder their output, profit-margins, and timeline, warding off investments and strangling decarbonization. The final design of the regulatory framework is still subject to change.
What does this mean for us? The new rules threaten to disrupt the clean fuel’s global transport chain, capping FDIs and exports from the UAE, Saudi, Egypt and Morocco. Just last year, Neom’s green hydrogen company inked an exclusive long-term agreement with Air Products last December to offtake 100% of the plant’s production and mark it for export to Hamburg’s port — which the proposed directives could impact.
WATCH THIS SPACE #3- Aramco and Exxon push back against IEA’s 2030 fossil fuel peak estimate: Despite promising predictions by the IEA last month that fossil fuel demand would peak within the next decade, Aramco Chief Amin Nasser and Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods are pushing back against the estimates, saying that demand for both oil, gas, and coal remain strong while calling for more investments into the carbon-intensive sources, CBC reported, noting statements made during the World Petroleum Congress this week. To create a net-zero pathway, more financing needs to be channeled toward power sources aside from renewables and green hydrogen, both of which will play a small role in meeting global energy needs, the oil companies said. A full dependency on low-carbon sources is proving unfeasible, according to Aramco. The notion of peak oil demand “is wilting under scrutiny because it is mostly being driven by policies, rather than the proven combination of markets, competitive economics and technology,” Reuters quotes Nasser as saying. The Saudi firm expects demand for oil to rise to 110 mn barrels per day by 2030, up 10 mn bpd from current levels.
KSA also took a shot at the IEA: Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman similarly called for more investments in hydrocarbons at the oil summit in Canada, and said the IEA has drifted from its role as “a forecaster and assessor of the market to one practicing political advocacy.”
WATCH THIS SPACE #4- Big emissions tax coming for the shipping industry in Europe: Ships sailing in and out of Europe could rack up a hefty emissions bill when the maritime industry joins the EU’s Emissions Trading System in January, Bloomberg reports. Shipping and maritime giants like MSC Mediterranean Shipping and AP Moller-Maersk may see a tab in the hundreds of mns of USD for carbon emissions.
About the system: Maritime vessels, which carry around 80% of world trade, emitted around 1 bn tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2018. The European Commission plans to cut emissions with a large-scale charge for international shipping. Ships carrying an average of 5k standard containers between Asia and Europe, which amounts to 40k tons of CO2 emissions, can see charges of around EUR 810k (USD 866.6k) assuming carbon prices are at EUR 90 a ton, the report notes.
In other emission cuts efforts: The program is expected to take a while to efficiently cut emissions, and methane and nitrous oxide emissions will be included in the system in coming years. The EU also has the 2025 FuelEU Maritime regulation that drives shippers toward clean fuels and caps annual greenhouse gasses emitted by shipping vessels.
THE DANGER ZONE- Climate change made Libya floods 10x more likely: The catastrophic flooding of Libya’s Derna city — which has left at least 4k dead and 9k missing according to UN recently revised figures — was made 50x more likely due to human-caused global heating, the Guardian reports, citing a study from the World Weather Attribution (WWA). Up to 50% more rainfall occurred due to human-caused climate change, the report concluded according to the new outlet, adding that the volume of rain that fell in Libya was “far outside that of previously recorded events.” The study found that in addition to increased CO2 emissions causing heavier rains and stronger floods, people were made more vulnerable to the rain due to a lack of adaptation planning such as building homes on floodplains, chopping down trees and not maintaining dams. The high death toll in Derna was a result of two poorly maintained aging dams bursting near the city, which washed away entire neighborhoods.
Our region should brace itself: “The Mediterranean is a hotspot of climate-change-fuelled hazards,” climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the report Friederike Otto told the Guardian. Across the region, such extreme rain could now be expected at least once a decade, the news outlet added. The floods in the Mediterranean region mark a “breaking point” in atmosphering conditions, research director at the National Observatory of Athens and co-author of the report Vassiliki Kotroni said.
REMEMBER- Building early warning systems and resilient infrastructures will be an essential factor in adapting to the climate crises and minimizing human losses. You can read more about regional adaptation initiatives in preparation for extreme weathers in part two of our explainer on the El Nino climate phenomenon. A study published earlier this month showed that the continent as a whole is in need of a 10-fold increase in climate adaptation funding to USD 100 bn annually by 2030, which African leaders have submitted a proposal for ahead of COP28.
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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-
Saudi Arabia will host the MENA Climate Week from Sunday, 8 October to Thursday, 12 October in Riyadh. The four-day summit will discuss climate solutions ahead of COP28. It aims to provide a platform for policymakers, businesses, and others to exchange climate solutions as well as discuss obstacles and avenues in different regions. It considers four major systems-based tracks: energy systems and industry, cities, urban and rural settlements, infrastructure and transport, land, ocean, food and water, societies, health, livelihoods, and economies. You can register here.
The UAE will host the UNCTAD World Investment Forum from Monday, 16 October to Friday, 20 October in Abu Dhabi. This year’s theme focuses on sustainable investments, with a diverse range of climate financing sessions on promoting investments in the blue economy, agrifood systems, sustainable infrastructure, carbon markets, the circular economy, strategic minerals for decarbonization, and sustainable tourism. Some sessions will tackle reform of financial institutions needed to reach net zero, such as a session on integrating nature-related risk into capital markets and financing an equitable nature economy. Public sector investments and stock exchange action on climate disclosures will also be discussed.
Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.