Alkhorayef highlights Saudi Arabia’s potential to support clean energy transition

Alkhorayef highlights Saudi Arabia’s potential to support clean energy transition

SHARM EL-SHEIKH — Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef stressed the vital role the Kingdom is playing in supporting the global transition to clean energy in a fireside chat held on Friday on the sidelines of COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt.

The Critical Minerals panel was hosted as part of the Saudi Green Initiative 2022 Forum, which gathers climate leaders to evaluate progress in climate action. The forum is held under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“With significant untapped mineral and metal deposits in Saudi Arabia, we have vast geological resources needed to help build a future based on clean energy. With a five-fold increase in supply needed by 2050 to create renewable energy technologies that global economies will increasingly run on, it is vital that we address the issue of mineral supplies now,” Alkhorayef said.

Minerals critical to the energy transition will significantly drive demand over the coming decades. Yet not enough are being produced at the scale and speed necessary to deliver the transition in time. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), production from existing and planned mines will only meet half of the lithium and cobalt needed by 2030 to achieve the targets