The Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) called on the GCC chemical industry to direct business and operating models towards achieving the objectives of the circular economy, decarbonization, and overcoming fundamental structural challenges.
Speaking at the second edition of the GPCA leaders’ forum, Chairman GPCA and Sabic CEO Yousef al-Benyan, acknowledged the wide-ranging implications, urgency, and impact on shareholder value of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by utilizing a circular carbon economy platform.
The forum was held in Dubai under the theme, ‘Breaking new ground in 2022: The Regional Industry in Transformation’, bringing together chemical leaders to address future realities and opportunities with a strategic mindset.
Benyan explained that the GCC chemical companies achieving the decarbonization objective are even more critical than other manufacturing sectors of the economy, as the chemical industry itself is a decarbonization tool for national oil companies.
He identified three priority transformation areas for the chemical industry: partnerships and collaborations, agility, new business, and operating models.
“The key question is how GCC companies can address these priorities. The answer is by focusing on talent and technology,” said Benyan, adding that “we have to take a global approach to attract and retain top talent and, at the same time, we must create a sustainable source of competitive talent at home.”
The CEO indicated that GCC chemical companies are primarily technology users, and in the future, technology will create a more significant divide between technology developers and technology users as the resource advantage erodes.
GPCA held its first session last year with the participation of regional leaders, discussing lessons learned from the pandemic and presenting a unified message on the importance of resilience, speed of recovery, and preparedness to face future challenges.
Sabic unveiled its Carbon Neutrality Roadmap in 2021, which plans to meet carbon neutrality by 2050, asserting its commitment to the Paris Agreement goals.
The roadmap identifies five pathways to decarbonization: reliability, energy efficiency, and improvements; renewable energy; electrification; carbon capture; and green/blue hydrogen.
Gulf countries are proceeding with shifting from traditional means to using technologies that reduce emissions and extract new resources from hydrogen.
Saudi Arabia emerged as the first country to adopt the circular economy approach and pushed for its approval internationally through the G20, which it hosted in 2020.
