of green ammonia for export. ACWA Power announced this year a plan to build two more hydrogen facilities in the area adjacent to NEOM. In addition, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have unveiled several blue hydrogen projects, including a facility near the Saudi Jafurah gas field, which will go online in 2024; and an Emirati large-scale blue ammonia plant

process that permanently captures (that is, mineralises) CO2 within peridotite rock formations. The UAE and Oman have already studied the potential of this solution in a pilot project, which found it could be cost-competitive and compatible with the GCC environment, where peridotite is abundant. The EU recognises mineralisation as a permanent seque

which is currently absent in the GCC. Given the relatively low-carbon content of GCC industry, detailed carbon pricing could be more convenient than standard emissions metrics and increase acceptance of the CBAM in the region Make it happen: Pathways to decarbonisation All of this suggests that there will likely continue to be significant divergenc

The green transition will be a given in the region, but the GCC states want that transition to be slow and gradual.[3] They would first scale up their renewable energy capacity to deploy it domestically, freeing up more fossil fuels for export. (All the GCC countries are currently investing in more fossil fuel production capacity.) Later, they woul

“green hydrogen”. In Saudi Arabia, the German foreign office has opened a Riyadh-based hydrogen diplomacy office. Its aim is to implement a 2021 memorandum of understanding that foresaw Germany providing electrolysis systems for the production of hydrogen at the Saudi flagship hydrogen project, NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, in exchange for green