Saudi climate action through carbon capture and storage initiatives

Saudi climate action through carbon capture and storage initiatives

Plumes of smoke rise from Europe's largest lignite power plant in Belchatow, central Poland. (AP)
Plumes of smoke rise from Europe's largest lignite power plant in Belchatow, central Poland. (AP)
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The Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, the world’s leading authority on CCS, reports that the level of policy support from governments reached historic highs in 2023. This has strengthened the business case for CCS and resulted in the project pipeline growing more rapidly in the past year than at any other time.

Furthermore, CCS in the Middle East and Africa region already accounts for around 8 percent of global capture capacity and is on the cusp of a remarkable uptrend, with commitments by the UAE and Saudi Arabia in announcing net-zero targets for 2050 and 2060 respectively.

Saudi Arabia, a global energy powerhouse, has embarked on an ambitious journey to combat climate change and transition toward a more sustainable future. As part of its commitment to the circular carbon economy, or CCE, the Kingdom is actively pursuing carbon capture and storage initiatives.

The Joint Development Agreement with Saudi Aramco is one of the largest initiatives on this front. This agreement aims to establish one of the biggest CCS hubs globally. The hub will be located in Jubail Industrial City and is set to start operating by 2027.

In its first phase, it will have the capacity to extract and store 9 million tonnes per year of carbon dioxide. The long-term goal is to extract, utilize, and store a staggering 44 million tonnes per year of carbon dioxide by 2035. In equal measures, the Al-Khobar CCS Project will capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources.

The captured carbon dioxide will be transported and stored in geological formations deep underground. This project represents a significant step toward achieving the Kingdom’s climate goals.

Saudi Arabia’s carbon capture and storage initiatives demonstrate its determination to address climate change head-on.

Khulood Rambo

Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is constructing the world’s largest green hydrogen plant. The plant is set to produce up to 600 tonnes of green hydrogen per day by 2026, which will play a crucial role in decarbonizing the energy sector.

In addition to ongoing efforts in the renewable energy transition, showing the Kingdom’s heavy investments, 13 new projects are underway, with a total capacity of 11.4 gigawatts. By 2030, Saudi Arabia aims to generate 50 percent of its power capacity from renewables. These projects are expected to reduce approximately 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

The Saudi Green Initiative aims to combat climate change, improve quality of life, and protect the environment for future generations. This initiative focuses on three key targets: Emissions reduction, afforestation, and land and sea protection.

Emissions reduction includes measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; afforestation targets involve planting 10 billion trees in Saudi Arabia and 50 billion across the Middle East; and land and sea protection aims to safeguard natural ecosystems.

Saudi Arabia is committed to placing 30 percent of its land and sea under protection by 2030. Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration are an integral part of this effort.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia announced the launch of the GHG Crediting and Offsetting Scheme in early 2024, which aims to support and incentivize emission reduction and removal projects across all sectors in the Kingdom.

In summary, Saudi Arabia’s carbon capture and storage initiatives demonstrate its determination to address climate change head-on. By leveraging technology, international partnerships, and a commitment to sustainability, the Kingdom is positioning itself as a global leader in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Khulood Rambo is a former research affiliate and visiting scholar at MIT, a private sector consultant, and a government program manager specializing in water, energy, food nexus, climate change, and sustainability.

 

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises

Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises
Updated 1 min 26 sec ago
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Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises

Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises
  • Shigeru Ishiba: Security environment surrounding Japan and the international community has significantly worsened due to escalating tensions with China, Russia and North Korea

TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Saturday renewed a pledge to build up his country’s military and deepen its alliance with the United States under President-elect Donald Trump.
Ishiba, who made the comments at an annual troop review held at Camp Asaka in the Tokyo suburbs, said the security environment surrounding Japan and the international community has significantly worsened due to escalating tensions with China, Russia and North Korea. He pledged to reinforce Japan’s military power.
He said breaches of Japanese airspace by Chinese and Russian warplanes earlier this year “not only violated Japanese sovereignty but also threatened the safety of Japan and are absolutely unacceptable.” He said Japan faces growing threats from China’s accelerating military activity around Japanese coasts and from North Korea’s repeated missile firings.
“As we face the most severe and complex security environment, I will balance and strengthen Japan’s diplomacy and security,” Ishiba said in his speech before hundreds of troops gathered for the ceremony.
The Japan-US alliance is the lynchpin for achieving this, Ishiba said, pledging to elevate Japan’s ties with the United States and work closely with Trump as they agreed during a brief telephone conversation Thursday.
Ishiba took office on Oct. 1, replacing his unpopular predecessor Fumio Kishida but his governing coalition badly lost a recent parliamentary election and could face difficulty pursuing his party’s planned policies and budget plans in coming months.
Ishiba pledged to pursue the ongoing military buildup plan under the 2022 security strategy adopted by his predecessor, Fumio Kishida, which calls for a counter-strike capability with long-range cruise-missiles, a break from its self-defense only principle. Ishiba said he will pursue strengthening of command system to improve operation between Japanese and US troops.
After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan had prioritized economic recovery over defense under its war-renouncing constitution, but has steadily strengthened its defense capability over the past years.


At least 13 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say

At least 13 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say
Updated 18 min 34 sec ago
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At least 13 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say

At least 13 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say

QUETTA: At least 13 people were killed and 25 injured in a bomb blast at a railway station in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, a police official told Reuters.
Pakistan is grappling with a surge in militant attacks in its northwest and a growing separatist insurgency in the south.
“The blast took place inside the railway station when the Peshawar-bound express was about to leave for its destination,” said the senior superintendent of police operations, Muhammad Baloch.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast.


UN sanctions two generals from Sudan’s paramilitary force

UN sanctions two generals from Sudan’s paramilitary force
Updated 17 min 14 sec ago
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UN sanctions two generals from Sudan’s paramilitary force

UN sanctions two generals from Sudan’s paramilitary force
  • Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital
  • The UN sanctions order all countries to freeze the asses and impose a travel ban on the generals

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions Friday on two generals in Sudan’s paramilitary force for their key roles in the war against the country’s military that has seen ethnically motivated attacks and atrocities.
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including Darfur. The UN says over 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured, and recently warned that the country has been pushed to the brink of famine.
The council’s sanctions committee added Maj. Gen. Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed, head of the Rapid Support Forces’ operations department, and Maj. Gen. Abdel Rahman Juma Barkalla, the RSF commander in West Darfur, to the sanctions blacklist.
Britain’s UN Mission tweeted on X that the two generals were added for threatening the peace, security and stability of Sudan, “including acts of violence and human rights abuses.”
The UN sanctions order all countries to freeze the asses and impose a travel ban on the generals. The United States Treasury imposed sanctions on both generals earlier in the year, freezing any assets in the US and banning all financial transactions with them.
Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes. That legacy appears to have returned, with the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, saying in January there were grounds to believe both sides may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide in Darfur. The RSF was born out of the Janjaweed.
Human Rights Watch said in a report in May that attacks by the paramilitary force and its allied militias, which killed thousands in Darfur in 2023, constituted a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the area’s non-Arab population.
The rights group said the RSF and its militias targeted the ethnic Masalit and other non-Arab groups in El Geneina, the capital city of West Darfur state. Masalit who were captured were tortured, women and girls were raped and entire neighborhoods were looted and destroyed, Human Rights Watch said.
Its report is entitled “The Massalit Will Not Come Home: Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan.”
The RSF controls the capitals of four of the five states in Darfur and has intensified its military campaign for control of the lone holdout, North Darfur capital El Fasher.


North Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South

North Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South
Updated 35 min 28 sec ago
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North Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South

North Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South
  • North Korea has become one of the most vocal and important backers of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine

Seoul: North Korea staged GPS jamming attacks on Friday and Saturday, Seoul’s military said, an operation that was affecting several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in South Korea.
The jamming allegations come about a week after the North test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile, its first such launch since being accused of sending soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.
The South fired its own ballistic missile into the sea on Friday in a show of force aimed at showing its resolve to respond to “any North Korean provocations.”
“North Korea conducted GPS jamming provocations in Haeju and Kaesong yesterday and today (November 8-9),” Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement Saturday, adding several vessels and dozens of civilian aircraft were experiencing “some operational disruptions” as a result.
The military warned ships and aircraft operating in the Yellow Sea to beware of such attacks.
“We strongly urge North Korea to immediately cease its GPS provocations and warn that it will be held responsible for any subsequent issues arising from this,” they said in the statement.
Tensions on the peninsula have been at their highest pitch in years, with the North launching a flurry of ballistic missiles in violation of UN sanctions.
It also has been bombarding the South with trash-carrying balloons since May, in what it says is retaliation for anti-Pyongyang propaganda missives sent North by activists.
North Korea has become one of the most vocal and important backers of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
Seoul and the West have long accused Pyongyang of supplying artillery shells and missiles to Moscow for use in Ukraine.
The latest accusations, based on intelligence reports, indicate the North has deployed around 10,000 troops to Russia, suggesting even deeper involvement in the conflict and triggering outcry in Seoul, Kyiv and Western capitals.
South Korea, a major arms exporter, has a long-standing policy of not providing weapons to countries in conflict.
But President Yoon Suk Yeol said this week that Seoul is now not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons directly to Ukraine, given Pyongyang’s military support of Moscow.
On Friday, Seoul’s presidential office said cyberattacks by pro-Russian hacking groups against South Korea have increased following North Korea’s troop dispatch for Russia’s war in Ukraine.


Indonesia volcano catapults vast ash tower into sky

Indonesia volcano catapults vast ash tower into sky
Updated 33 min 44 sec ago
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Indonesia volcano catapults vast ash tower into sky

Indonesia volcano catapults vast ash tower into sky
  • There were no immediate reports of damage to nearby villages from Saturday’s fresh eruption.
  • Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

East Flores: A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted again on Saturday, sending a giant ash tower nine kilometers (more than five miles) into the sky, days after it killed nine people and forced thousands of locals to evacuate.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-meter (5,587-foot) twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, has erupted more than a dozen times this week, killing nine people after its initial burst on Monday.
“The ash column was observed at approximately 9,000 meters above the summit. The ash column appeared grey with thick intensity,” the country’s volcanology agency said in a statement about the eruption that began at 04:47 local time (2047 GMT).
There were no immediate reports of damage to nearby villages from Saturday’s fresh eruption.
But the agency warned residents to “remain alert to the potential for cold lava floods” due to heavy rainfall.
On Friday, another huge eruption forced officials at a nearby monitoring post to evacuate as ash and small rocks rained down.
The mountain on Thursday spewed an ash tower eight kilometers high, which locals said was one of the biggest they had ever seen.
More than 10,000 people have been affected by the eruptions, with officials telling locals to permanently relocate from an eight-kilometer exclusion zone.
The head of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said authorities would temporarily house and fund locals while new homes were built.
“Since the preparation and planning process for relocation takes time, we hope we can build them quickly,” said Suharyanto, who goes by one name, on a visit to a shelter Friday.
Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman.”
Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”