Saudi climate pledge: Key announcements from Sharm El-Sheikh

Saudi climate pledge: Key announcements from Sharm El-Sheikh

The second edition of the annual Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) Forum was held from 11 to 12 November 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in tandem with COP 27. New projects, inititaives and past achievements announced during the two-day event have been summarised below as follows:

Renewable Energy

- The Kingdom will finalise plans for 10 renewable energy projects and connect an additional 840 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaic power to the grid in 2023 in line with its ambition to achieve 50 percent power generation capacity from renewables by 2030.

- Currently, 13 new renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 11.4 gigawatts (GW) are under development at an estimated investment of $ 9 billion (34 billion Saudi riyals). These projects, once operational, are set to reduce around 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year.

Carbon Capture

- Aramco to establish one of the largest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) hubs in the world in Jubail Industrial City. The hub, slated to start operations by 2027, would be able to extract and store 9 million metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) of CO2 in its first phase, supporting Saudi Arabia’s national target to extract, use and store 44 million mtpa of CO2