“Saudi geology and industrial expertise is among the most ideally suited for carbon capture and storage of any country on earth. The kingdom is replete with pipeline and oil industry expertise, while a large portion of the kingdom’s emissions are concentrated in industrial clusters that makes capturing them relatively easy.”
-Jim Krane and Karen Young assess the challenges Saudi Arabia faces with it’s net-zero domestic carbon emissions by 2060 pledge along with some of the advantages the Kingdom has in trying to achieve this goal. [Al-Monitor]
“Saudi Arabia is the size of western Europe and it has two enormous coastlines on one of the world’s main shipping routes. If you did the economic map you would put everything in Riyadh. The UAE always relied on Saudi Arabia never executing [policy and projects], now there’s a chance it could get its act together. But there is a lot of stuff where Saudi Arabia is light years behind — it’s the nimbleness [of the UAE] versus the supertanker.”
–A Senior banker in the Gulf region. [Financial Times]
“The mix of cultural events, pop-up restaurants and sports matches starting this week could be sustained by domestic demand even if the hoped-for tourists don’t come.”
-Faisal Bafarat, chief executive of the General Entertainment Authority. This year’s Riyadh Season is targeting 11.5 million visitors – including half a million international tourists. For the 2019 Riyadh Season $830 million was spent on events which generated $1,6 billion in “direct and indirect” revenue. [Bloomberg]
“From 2016 to 2020, which was my four year term in the Shoura Council, it was in my opinion the most crucial term for women in Saudi Arabia because it just followed the announcement of Vision 2030. Those were the transformation years. And that’s where the bulk of the empowerment policies and rules and the regulations basically were being formed. So that was really special and I felt like I was on a mission.”
–Lina Almaeena, in an exclusive interview with The 966, discussing her service in Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council. In the interview, Almaeena also talks about what it took to be a working mother while commuting for her work on the Shoura Council while also managing her business, Jeddah United. [The 966 Podcast]
“Despite the pandemic, officials are targeting 11.5 million visitors — including half a million international tourists — for the festival, which they hope will help fill hotels and line the pockets of local Uber drivers after the economy contracted 4.1% last year.”
–Vivian Nereim, writing for Bloomberg, on the second ‘Riyadh Season’ which will be six months long instead of three based on the success of the inaugural season in 2019 when government reportedly spent $830 million on events that generated $1.6 billion in “direct and indirect” revenue. [Bloomberg]
“To succeed in reducing emissions as quickly and effectively as possible, it is necessary to also make smart investments in natural gas. Gas facilitates the fast deployment of renewables, rapidly reduces emissions by accelerating the retirement of liquid fuel power projects, and can avoid carbon lock-in through the ability to deploy carbon capture and hydrogen generation technology over time.”
–GE White Paper, entitled “Pathways to faster decarbonization in the GCC’s power sector.” [GE]
“With the international oil companies rebranding and reinventing themselves as broad energy suppliers and divesting from carbon-intensive projects, it will be up to the national oil companies, in particular the low-cost producers of the Middle East, to step up even at the risk of investing in what might turn out to be stranded assets. But a premature switch away from fossil fuels carries the risk of sharply higher prices across the energy spectrum and might lead to a backlash from consumers in the event of a costly and messy transition.”
-Kate Dourian examines Gulf Countries steps towards a net-zero world. [The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington]
“The MoH launched Tabaud – a tracking application – to monitor the spread of COVID-19 and alert potential contacts of infected persons. Another application called Sehaty was offered to facilitate virtual appointment booking, including arranging vaccine appointments.”
–KPMG in Saudi Arabia issued it’s Customer Experience Excellence 2021 report with Albaik taking the top slot and, notably, the Ministry of Health claiming #2. [KPMG]
“But these are all long-term, long-gestation projects. That is why liberalization measures (full foreign ownership, facilitating long-term residence, reforming labor markets, allowing competition, protecting property rights, insolvency and bankruptcy laws) are important to attract FDI.”
Nasser Saidi, former economics minister of Lebanon, now Dubai-based economics consultant, discussing Saudi Arabia’s six giga projects. [Arab News]
“It understands this is the solution for Saudi Arabia as a country, rather than slowing down this substitution. There has been a clear change of mindset.”
–Oliver Gawad, Senior Director, Economic Development, Strategy and Sustainability, KPMG in Saudi Arabia commenting in KPMG’s recently published Net Zero Readiness Index. [KPMG]
