MUST-READS

• Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman says Israel committing genocide in Gaza

  At a joint summit by the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Conference held in Riyadh, the prince and other Arab leaders doubled down on their criticism of Israel's assaults on Gaza and Lebanon, calling for an immediate ceasefire. "This summit is held as an extension to the previous summit in light of the continued heinous Israeli aggressions against our brotherly Palestinian people and the extension of aggressions on the brotherly Republic of Lebanon," he said in his keynote speech. "The kingdom reiterates its denounciation of the genocide perpetrated by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people, which resulted in more than 150,000 martyrs, wounded and missing, the majority of whom are women and children."

• COP29: Saudi Arabia launches carbon credit exchange to bolster decarbonization efforts

  The exchange platform, managed by Saudi Arabia's Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company (RVCMC), is part of Saudi Arabia's strategy to scale up its voluntary carbon market. As part of the opening, 22 Saudi and international companies will participate in an auction on Nov. 12 on the platform. The auction will offer 2.5 million high-integrity carbon credits from 17 projects certified by Verra, Gold Standard and Puro.earth, with a vintage of 2020 onwards. Most of the credits auctioned will be from projects in the Global South, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Vietnam. This will be RVCMC's third carbon credit auction after it held auctions in Nairobi and Riyadh previously. Last year, RVCMC sold 2.2 million mt of carbon credits on June 14 at its second auction in Kenya as the kingdom looks to expand its presence in the carbon sector.

• ‘Change the Game’: Saudi Arabia Takes a Stride Into Women’s Tennis

  Moving into tennis, Saudi Arabia recently hosted the Six Kings Slam, an exhibition showcasing the top men’s players. And it struck a three-year deal with the financially struggling WTA to bring its finals to Riyadh in part with the promise of awarding some $15 million in prize money this year. Those are the highest winnings in the history of women’s tennis, satisfying players’ demands for prize parity with men. “The Western world can keep reporting that our country is sportswashing, or whatever, but what matters is that my sisters and I can watch our favorite sports stars right here at home,” said Maryam al-Shammeri, who was in the crowd for the WTA final on Saturday night with her brother and two sisters.

• Preserving the Past, Building the Future: Saudi Arabia’s cultural heritage and business synergy

  In the Quality of Life Program 2023 annual report, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that the Kingdom is striving to cultivate a deep sense of pride in the nation and actively contribute to global development and progress, across economic, environmental, cultural, and intellectual dimensions. The report further revealed that in 2023, the Ministry of Culture targeted 108,010 employees in the Saudi cultural sector, but recorded 216,878 workers during the year, reflecting an achievement rate of 201 percent.

• Saudi Arabia Bets $10B on Green Hydrogen

  “Green hydrogen is currently more expensive,” said the chief executive of Emsteel Group,  Masdar’s partner in the green hydrogen venture in comments on the news. “This highlights the need for alignment with regulators, suppliers, steel producers and customers,” Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi added. When a business executive talks about the cost of a technology and “alignment with regulators,” he most probably means state fund support, also known as subsidies. Indeed, green hydrogen is several times as expensive to produce as the cheaper versions of the element that feature natural gas. This appears to be an obstacle that is increasingly looking insurmountable.

• Strengthening Documentary Heritage Preservation in Saudi Arabia
  UNESCO launched this week the first in a series of capacity-building activities aimed at preserving documentary heritage in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. Organized in cooperation with the Royal Commission of AlUla (RCU), these activities will explore best practices at strengthening the capacity of national archives and other memory institutions. Featuring the participation of experts from RCU and partner organizations involved in the preservation of AlUla’s heritage, the inaugural workshop trained 16 heritage practitioners from AlUla’s memory institutions, including archivists, librarians, conservators, and cultural heritage managers.

• ‘Exceptional’ 4000-Year-Old Settlement Emerges in a Saudi Arabian Oasis

  Until 20 years ago, little was known about the Bronze Age culture of the Hejaz, a mountainous region that abuts the Red Sea in western Saudi Arabia. Archaeological evidence was scant and the traces on the ground—largely megalithic monuments and rock art—pointed to an era and territory sparsely populated by nomadic pastoralists. In the early 2000s, that picture began to change through a Saudi-German mission in the Tayma oasis that uncovered a fortified settlement with strong trade links across the Arabian Peninsula and with other Mesopotamian civilizations. Next, a Saudi-Austrian expedition in 2015 explored another urbanized oasis. Now, new excavations, some 120 miles southwest in the Khaybar Oasis, further the idea that the area saw an increase in urban living between 2,500 B.C.E. and the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E

• Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival Highlights Local Productions Depicting Social Change in Arab Galas Strand

  Films from Saudi Arabia form the core of the Red Sea International Film Festival’s Arab Spectacular five-picture strand, which features world premieres of a trio of new Saudi titles exploring societal changes in the kingdom. One case in point is “Hobal,” the new allegorical drama by Saudi director Abdulaziz Alshlahei (“The Tambour of Retribution”). The film follows a Bedouin family whose members are forced by its patriarch to live in isolation in the desert due to fear of an infectious disease during the 1990s when Saudi was starting to open up to the outside world.

• Saudi Arabia launches tender for 8 GWh of battery storage in world’s largest deal

  The Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) has begun qualifying bidders for an enormous undertaking of four grid-scale battery projects totaling 8 GWh of storage capacity across the Kingdom. The projects mark the first phase of Saudi Arabia’s battery storage program, designed to support its goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030. Each 500 MW facility will operate for four hours, providing 2,000 MWh of total power capacity, said the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC).

• Saudi Arabia water crisis: how do they handle sustainable agriculture and water management?

  Dutch technology and expertise are central to these efficiency improvements. "There’s a strong awareness in the region that the current situation is unsustainable," according to Landhuis. "Over recent years, particularly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, we’ve seen the construction of large-scale closed greenhouse systems and a growing interest in vertical farming. To give you an idea, the water used for producing one kilogram of tomatoes in a high-tech greenhouse is about 5 liters, compared to over 200 liters in many traditional systems. Much of this technology and knowledge comes from the Netherlands, particularly from Wageningen University & Research (WUR).”

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