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Sustainability

Sustainability and environmental business news from the Middle East. All the important stories, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

space greenhouse gas Satellite

Spacecraft that spots Gulf gases wins extra funding

A Bahraini-British project to develop a spacecraft that will monitor Gulf greenhouse gas emissions from space has been awarded a further £1.4 million ($1.8 million) grant by the UK Space Agency. The partnership between the Bahrain National Space Science Agency, YBA Kanoo Group in Manama, and the University of Leicester and Geospatial Insight of Birmingham […]

The global refurbished and used mobile phone market is forecast to grow from $50bn in 2022 to $172bn by 2033

Egypt plans €100m smartphone recycling centre

A €100 million smartphone refurbishment and recycling plant is being planned for the Suez Canal Economic Zone.  The man leading the project is named by Daily News Egypt as Samuel Mathias, an expatriate Egyptian who is said to be a Paris-based electronics engineer and business owner.  The newspaper said that Soha Gendi, Egypt’s minister of […]

Acwa Power's desalination plant in Senegal will have a capacity of 400,000 cubic metres per day

Acwa Power to build $800m desalination plant in Senegal

Acwa Power, Saudi Arabia’s operator of power generation and desalinated water production plants, will construct a SAR3 billion ($800 million) desalination plant in Dakar, Senegal. The company signed an agreement with Senegal’s ministry of water and sanitation and state-backed National Water Company, to build a 400,000 cubic metres per day desalination plant in Dakar. The […]

Turkey's low-carbon pathways initiative will offer guidance to domestic and global players on the country’s decarbonisation

European bank backs Turkey’s decarbonisation

Turkey has secured the backing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to launch a new initiative to decarbonise its hard-to-abate sectors, such as steel, cement, aluminium and fertiliser. The low-carbon pathways (LCPs) initiative will offer guidance to domestic and international players on the necessary technology and green financing to accelerate the country’s decarbonisation. The […]

The Al-Oyeynah Research Station in Saudi Arabia. Gulf nations are taking steps to increase renewables investment

Acwa Power faces $47m loss in Morocco solar plant outage

Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power estimates it will incur a revenue loss of $47 million following a breakdown at one of its Morocco renewable energy plants.   The 150-megawatt Noor III solar power plant will face a “forced outage” until November 2024 due to a leak in the molten salt hot tank, the company said in a […]

SFD CEO Sultan Abdulrahman Al-Marshad and Pakistan's ministry of economic affairs secretary Dr Kazim Niaz at the agreement signing ceremony

Saudi fund to invest $101m in Pakistan’s green projects

The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) will provide $101 million in soft loans to support Pakistan’s green energy projects. The first agreement is for an investment of $66 million to construct the 48 megawatts (MW) Shounter Hydropower station, which will be connected to Pakistan’s national electricity grid, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. The project […]

Kuwait has 'good solar resources' as well as wind, and could reduce emissions with a better focus on renewables

Kuwait playing catch-up with latest renewables strategy

Kuwait still has a way to go on its energy transition, industry experts say, despite the announcement of a 20-year renewables strategy. Salem Al-Hajraf, minister of electricity, water and renewable energy, said on March 7 that the country is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050. “We … need an increase in solar energy, which is considered […]

Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s minister of investment, trade and industry, said the two countries are close to finalising the deal

Digital economy focus of UAE-Malaysia trade talks

The UAE is expected to sign a free trade deal with Malaysia by the end of June as the latter courts more investment to develop its digital economy. Talks on establishing a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa) began last year and Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s minister of investment, trade and industry, said the two […]

US company CarbonCapture builds direct air capture machines that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Saudi Aramco unit backs US climate tech startup

CarbonCapture, a climate tech company, has raised $80 million from investors, including Saudi Aramco’s venture capital unit. The series A fundraising was led by Prime Movers Lab and included Aramco Ventures, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Siemens Financial Services, Idealab X, and Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures. The Los Angeles-headquartered startup’s latest major funding round is one […]

An alfalfa field in Arizona. Fondomonte used land in the state to grow the water-intensive crop for export to Saudi Arabia

Saudi company faces blowback over water use in Arizona

The US state of Arizona has cancelled land lease deals with a subsidiary of the Saudi dairy company Almarai after complaints of groundwater being depleted in the arid region. The cancellation highlights tensions over corporations controlling foreign land for food security.  In 2014 Almarai’s Fondomonte bought and leased thousands of acres in Arizona and California, […]

Sellers at the fish market in Jizan, Saudi Arabia. The kingdom brought in regulations in 2021 to curb overfishing

Saudi Arabia and UAE back fishing subsidies ban

The UAE and Saudi Arabia were the only GCC countries to back a failed bid by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to curb subsidies that contribute to overfishing and wider fishing sector overcapacity. It had been hoped that the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS), which, according to WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has “been on the […]

'National emissions trading systems are essential to create a global carbon price,' said the European Energy Exchange

Turkey and Europe join up to promote carbon trading

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) and Turkish energy bourse Enerji Piyasalari Isletme A.S (Epias) have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop carbon emissions trading in Turkey. “We look forward to working with Epias in creating a robust emissions trading system (ETS) in Turkey by providing our expertise in carbon markets,” said EEX chief executive […]

An Emirates flight at Cairo International Airport. Emirates last year launched a $200 million fund to produce sustainable aviation fuel

Passengers pay for aviation’s sustainability shortcomings

Penalties imposed on the aviation industry for failing to meet stringent sustainability targets will ultimately lead to higher air fares for passengers, according to an industry expert. “The customer is going to pay the extra cost,” said Wahab Teffaha, secretary general of the Arab Air Carriers’ Organization, speaking at the 11th annual Arab Aviation Summit […]