Good morning, friends. It’s a busy Wednesday morning with regional updates across the board as we inch closer to the weekend. Let’s jump right in.

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY- Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority has established carbon credit verification and certification standards for issuing voluntary carbon certificates as it takes an important regulatory step in setting up Africa’s first voluntary carbon market.

^^ We have all the details on this story and more in the news well, below.

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- The US’s first offshore wind auction in Gulf of Mexico is here: The US kicked off its first ever offshore wind energy auction for the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as part of the Biden administration’s commitment to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030. The US Interior Department has auctioned off a lease area of 102.4k acres off the coast of Louisiana’s Lake Charles and two areas totalling 200k acres off the shore of Galveston in Texas. RWE won the Lake Charles lease area, which has the capacity to generate c. 1.24 GW of offshore wind capacity and power c. 435.5k homes with clean energy. The two lease areas in Galveston did not receive bids

The auction is getting ink in international press: Reuters | Bloomberg | The Guardian

WATCH THIS SPACE - Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power aims to capture a 50% share of Egypt’s renewables market by 2026, CEO Marco Arcelli told Daily News Egypt. Arcelli explained that a planned USD 10 bn green investments allocated for Egypt will be disbursed within three years. The company has so far invested a total of USD 2.5 bn in Egypt on five projects with a combined capacity of 1.85 GW. Three of the projects are megascale in size and are scheduled for operation in 2026.

A closer look at the megaprojects: Acwa Power is developing a 1.1 GW wind farm in the Gulfof Suez. The farm has an investment cost of USD 1.5 bn and is set to be one of the largest onshore wind farms in the world and the largest in the Middle East. Acwa Power is also building a 10 GW wind farm in Sohag governorate, for which it signed a land allocation agreement last month. Acwa also owns the 200 MW Kom Ombo solar power plant, which last April got USD 114 mn in backing from a consortium of international lenders led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The company has minority stakes in three plants in Egypt’s 1.8 GW Benban solar complex (pdf).

DATA POINT- 2022 was the year for cost competitiveness: New renewable energy capacity added since 2000 has helped slash the electricity sector’s fuel bill in 2022 by at least USD 520 bn, according to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena). It said the saving of new capacity additions last year will help lower costs by up to USD 580 bn in non-OECD nations. Renewable energy’s competitiveness benefitted from the fossil fuel price crisis last year, with around 86% — or 187 GW — of all newly commissioned capacity having lower costs than fossil fuel-fired electricity, the report notes. The world still needs to add 1k GW of renewable power annually on average until 2030 to keep the global warming threshold within reach, triple those of 2022 levels, Irena’s Director-General Francesco La Camera said.

THE DANGER ZONE- Energy-related CO2 emissions will likely double the target set out by the UN in its 2 °C scenario by 2050, Bloomberg reports, citing Exxon Mobil’s annual Energy Outlook report. Global emissions are predicted to reach 25 bn metric tons by 2050, more than double the target of 11 bn set by the 2016 Paris Agreement. While this is 25% less than the 34 bn ton peak expected this decade, it remains a long way from what’s required to meet the goals of the 2016 Paris Agreement, Bloomberg writes. The difficulty in controlling emissions will be the result of a predicted rise in population and consumer purchasing power by 2050, which will drive more manufacturing, commercial transportation, and other industrial activities.

NON-CLIMATE REGIONAL HEADLINES:

  • Egypt: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi discussed with Sudanese military ruler General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan meditation efforts for the Sudanese crisis during the Sudanese leader’s first foreign trip since the outbreak of war in April. (Al Ahram)
  • KSA: PIF’s AviLease will purchase Standard Chartered’s global aviation finance leasing business in a transaction valued at USD 3.6 bn. (Al Riyadh)

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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Saudi Arabia will host the Sustainable Maritime Industry Conference from Monday, 4 September to Wednesday, 6 September in Jeddah. Organized by KSA’s Transport and Logistic Services Ministry, the event will feature over 50 speakers to spotlight sustainability, new technologies, and digitization efforts in the maritime industry. Speakers will include International Maritime Organization Secretary General Kitack Lim and World Ocean Council CEO Paul Holthus.

Kenya will host the Africa Climate Summit from Monday, 4 September to Wednesday, 6 September in Nairobi. The event will bring together government leaders and investors to share pathways to increasing Africa’s climate resilience and serve as a platform to inform and frame commitments, pledges, and outcomes, ultimately leading to the development of the Nairobi Declaration on Climatic Change.

India will host the G20 Heads of State and Government Summit from Saturday, 9 September to Sunday, 10 September in New Delhi. A G20 Leaders’ Declaration will be adopted at the conclusion of the summit, stating commitment towards priorities discussed and agreed upon during previous ministerial and working group meetings through the year, the organizers note. The last meeting of G20 energy ministers in July failed to reach consensus on a fossil fuel phasedown as several major producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, blocked the move. Among other expected announcements, the Global Biofuels Alliance is scheduled to be launched at the summit.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

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