Saudi Green Initiative Forum at COP28: Kingdom Advances Climate Ambitions

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman (Ministry of Energy)
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman (Ministry of Energy)
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Saudi Green Initiative Forum at COP28: Kingdom Advances Climate Ambitions

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman (Ministry of Energy)
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman (Ministry of Energy)

Saudi Arabia has unveiled its efforts to launch renewable energy projects with a capacity of 20 gigawatts by 2024. This comes after the kingdom having quadrupled its renewable energy production from 700 megawatts to 2.8 gigawatts so far.
Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced on Monday that the Saudi Green Initiative was launched in 2021 to achieve the country’s climate ambitions of reaching zero neutrality by 2060.
“Within this initiative, the Kingdom is committed to reducing 278 million tons of carbon emissions annually by 2030,” he said while inaugurating the third edition of the Saudi Green Initiative 2023 (SGI) Forum in Dubai on Monday.
“When the international community called for increasing climate ambition, the Kingdom came forward and launched the Green Saudi Arabia initiative as a fundamental pillar for achieving the Kingdom’s climate ambitions.”
“We are working to expand our efforts regionally and internationally through the Green Middle East Initiative to achieve global climate goals,” said Prince Abdulaziz.
The energy minister further said that Saudi Arabia, through the previous session of the SGI forum during “COP27,” which was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, and during the current “COP28” being held in Dubai, showed its utmost keenness and strenuous efforts to achieve those ambitions regarding renewable energy.
“The Kingdom’s concrete action on implementing renewables are reflected by its ability to quadruple its capacity from 700 megawatts last year to 2.8 gigawatts with more than eight gigawatts of renewable under construction and around 13 gigawatts in various development stages,” said Prince Abdulaziz.
“We are also planning to tender an additional 20 gigawatt by 2024 as part of our commitment to accelerate the development to renewable energy projects,” he added.
He explained that Saudi Arabia has launched a geophysical survey project, starting next year, which is one of the few projects of this extensive scale implemented nationally, involving over 1200 measurement stations.
Prince Abdulaziz stressed that Saudi Arabia aims to become a major exporter of green hydrogen globally, as the NEOM Project has completed its first phase and achieved investments worth $8.5 billion.
This project will produce 1.2 million tons of green ammonia annually, he said while pointing out that the Kingdom is developing international partnerships to develop more green hydrogen projects in the country, in addition to hydrogen mobility solutions, including trains.
The minister said that Saudi Arabia, in its bid to boost its ambition to export clean and green electricity and hydrogen, has signed a memorandum of understanding for the economic corridor between India, the Middle East and Europe, during the G20 summit meetings in India.
“This will be an essential possibility for export, and this corridor includes electricity, transmission lines and hydrogen pipelines, where we will supply clean energy on a large scale at a low cost and in a reliable manner,” said Prince Abdulaziz.
“Saudi Arabia is working closely to achieve circular carbon in the energy transition, which was approved by the G20 summit,” he affirmed.

 

 



OPEC Again Cuts 2024, 2025 Oil Demand Growth Forecasts

The OPEC logo. Reuters
The OPEC logo. Reuters
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OPEC Again Cuts 2024, 2025 Oil Demand Growth Forecasts

The OPEC logo. Reuters
The OPEC logo. Reuters

OPEC cut its forecast for global oil demand growth this year and next on Tuesday, highlighting weakness in China, India and other regions, marking the producer group's fourth consecutive downward revision in the 2024 outlook.

The weaker outlook highlights the challenge facing OPEC+, which comprises the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, which earlier this month postponed a plan to start raising output in December against a backdrop of falling prices.

In a monthly report on Tuesday, OPEC said world oil demand would rise by 1.82 million barrels per day in 2024, down from growth of 1.93 million bpd forecast last month. Until August, OPEC had kept the outlook unchanged since its first forecast in July 2023.

In the report, OPEC also cut its 2025 global demand growth estimate to 1.54 million bpd from 1.64 million bpd, Reuters.

China accounted for the bulk of the 2024 downgrade. OPEC trimmed its Chinese growth forecast to 450,000 bpd from 580,000 bpd and said diesel use in September fell year-on-year for a seventh consecutive month.

"Diesel has been under pressure from a slowdown in construction amid weak manufacturing activity, combined with the ongoing deployment of LNG-fuelled trucks," OPEC said with reference to China.

Oil pared gains after the report was issued, with Brent crude trading below $73 a barrel.

Forecasts on the strength of demand growth in 2024 vary widely, partly due to differences over demand from China and the pace of the world's switch to cleaner fuels.

OPEC is still at the top of industry estimates and has a long way to go to match the International Energy Agency's far lower view.

The IEA, which represents industrialised countries, sees demand growth of 860,000 bpd in 2024. The agency is scheduled to update its figures on Thursday.

- OUTPUT RISES

OPEC+ has implemented a series of output cuts since late 2022 to support prices, most of which are in place until the end of 2025.

The group was to start unwinding the most recent layer of cuts of 2.2 million bpd from December but said on Nov. 3 it will delay the plan for a month, as weak demand and rising supply outside the group maintain downward pressure on the market.

OPEC's output is also rising, the report showed, with Libyan production rebounding after being cut by unrest. OPEC+ pumped 40.34 million bpd in October, up 215,000 bpd from September. Iraq cut output to 4.07 million bpd, closer to its 4 million bpd quota.

As well as Iraq, OPEC has named Russia and Kazakhstan as among the OPEC+ countries which pumped above quotas.

Russia's output edged up in October by 9,000 bpd to about 9.01 million bpd, OPEC said, slightly above its quota.