Sustainability is an opportunity for better growth for MENA countries in various sectors. A recent article by EY analyses several such growth engines, green energy being a prominent one. Here are some insights in a nutshell:

Solar - The UAE recently secured funding for the world’s biggest solar farm.

Hydrogen - Saudi Arabia hopes to become the largest supplier of hydrogen, exporting about 4 million tons by 2030; According the article, GCC countries already have the skills and infrastructure to build a thriving hydrogen sector as the hydrocarbons industry has equipped them with strong capabilities in areas such as logistics and trading, which the hydrogen sector will need. Green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy, could decarbonise some of the most energy-intensive industries.

Natural gas - As GCC countries seek to diversify away from oil, they are also increasing production of the transitional fuel natural gas. They argue, according to the article, that carbon capture and storage, which aims to sequester planet-warming gases before they are released into the atmosphere, will make them low-carbon producers of Liquefied Natural Gas.

Nuclear energy - is also attracting growing investment. During the height of the pandemic last year, the UAE opened the Arab world’s first nuclear power plant; two of whose units are now connected to the grid.

However, the authors point out that all of this may be futile if such products are not properly branded and marketed, as customers of greener energy need to be confident of the underlying emissions for the products they are buying; This will require oil and gas majors, as well as utilities to overhaul their record systems for emissions identification and accounting across the whole value chain. Finally they indicate that this can actually act as a strong enabler for the new wave of digital transformation of the energy sector, giving opportunity to harness this new data to optimize operations and get new business insights.

Source: EY.