Good morning, folks. It has been a long and eventful week, culminating in major breaking news from our patch of the region…

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY- Egypt will be eligible to lock in an additional USD 1-1.2 bn in climate finance from the International Monetary Fund if separate negotiations translate into an agreement on the back of a freshly inked USD 8 bn program.

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

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- US SEC adopts landmark corporate climate disclosure rules: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted a rule that would require US-listed companies to disclose climate-related risks. The first-of-its-kind regulation will standardize disclosures on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and require companies to explain how they are preparing for the shift to a low-carbon economy.

The backlash was immediate: Ten Republican-led states including Georgia, Alabama and Alaska filed a petition against the SEC over the ruling, Reuters reports. Companies and Republican officials have criticized the move, warning of legal challenges and arguing that the rules overstep the SEC's jurisdiction, the newswire writes.

The story made headlines in the international press:Reuters | AP | The Financial Times | The Wall Street Journal | The New York Times

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Lucid Motors seeks to fundraise this year: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund-backed Lucid Motors says it cannot depend on the “bottomless wealth” of its Saudi owner and will set in motion fundraising this year, CEO Peter Rawlinson told The Financial Times in an interview. The company says it is examining costs and will make cutes while boosting output at its Arizona factory. The US facility has the capacity to produce 90k cars annually but only expects to ship out 9k this year.

It’s been rough: Lucid has enough funds to last into 2025, but is burning through around USD 1 bn a quarter. The company is considering options including “bringing logistics under the same roof to reduce [operating spending], looking at the bill of materials, looking at overheads, looking at reducing anything that is variable.”

REMEMBER- Lucid could soon move to full production of EVs in Jeddah: The company’s first international plant has been carrying out semi-knocked-down (SKD) assembly with a capacity of 5k vehicles per annum since it was inaugurated in KSA in September. The company plans to shift to completely built-up (CBU) production at its plant in Jeddah to help it boost production capacity to 155k vehicles per year.

#2- UK-based private equity group Permira is forming a new investment team to focus on the transition to a low carbon economy, Reuters reports. Co-led by former Blackstone executive Kush Patel, the team will invest globally in projects and platforms that support the decarbonisation of various industries and the modernisation of energy grids. The group said that the transition represents a USD 12 tn cumulative revenue opportunity by 2030. Permira is one of the latest alternative asset managers to invest more in the low-carbon transition, following in the footsteps of Carlyle, Brookfield, BlackRock, and General Atlantic, the report adds.

#3- LMErejects miners' call for green nickel premium: The London Metal Exchange (LME) has dismissed a proposal by global mining companies to introduce a price premium for sustainably produced nickel, saying the market is not ready for such a move, The Financial Times reports. Australia’s mining companies BHP and Wyloo Metals have been urging the LME to differentiate between “dirty nickel and cleaner supplies’ and warning that nickel mining in Indonesia, the world's top producer, causes environmental damage and high carbon emissions.

Not enough demand: The LME said that the demand for “green” nickel was not large enough to support a separate futures contract and that it would instead work with the market to identify a credible “green premium” to the LME price through its Metalshub platform. The LME's decision comes as Indonesia's low-cost nickel suppliers are expected to dominate the global market in the next few years. Analysts said the LME was unlikely to establish a separate contract for Indonesian nickel, as it would go against recent efforts to rebuild liquidity on the exchange following a nickel market crisis in 2022, and stated that the green premium was more likely to be negotiated through long-term contracts with customers, or influenced by government policies such as the EU's carbon border tax.

#4- Russia + China want to put a nuclear plant on the moon: Russia and China are exploring the possibility of jointly deploying a nuclear power plant on the lunar surface between 2033 to 2035, which the aim of powering future lunar settlements, Reuters reports, quoting Russia's space agency Roscosmos Yuri Borisov. Russia also intends to launch a nuclear-powered cargo spaceship “to transport large cargoes from one orbit to another, collect space debris and engage in many other applications," Borisov added.

#5- El Niño is growing weaker but its effects are expected to continue to fuel above average temperatures worldwide in the next few months, according to new research by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). There is a 60% chance that the El Niño phenomenon will persist from March until May and an 80% chance of neutral weather patterns between April to June, according to the study.

REMEMBER- El Niño is a naturally occuring weather phenomenon that takes place every two to seven years due to the warming of sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Fueling heat trapped by GHG: This latest El Niño cycle reached its peak between November 2023 and January 2024 and is one of the five strongest in history at 2°C above the 1991 to 2020 average sea surface temperature for the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean, the study shows. The main culprit behind high temperatures is heat trapping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the WMO.

DANGER ZONE-

Arctic summers could be “icefree” by 2035: Scientists are warning that the Arctic could lose almost all of its sea ice during the summer months within the next decade due to global warming, The Guardian writes, citing a new study (pdf) in the Nature Reviews Earth & Environment journal. The study’s findings report the first icefree day could occur over 10 years earlier than previous projections. Researchers used a climate model to simulate the future of the Arctic under different emission scenarios, discovering that under a high-emission scenario, the Arctic could experience consistently icefree Septembers between 2035 and 2067. This would transform the Arctic from a "white Arctic" to a "blue Arctic" boasting mainly water during summer months. This would not only affect wildlife, but also people living along nearby coasts as the loss of sea ice would result in a lack of barrier for stronger and bigger waves causing more erosion.

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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The UAE will host the World Future Energy Summit from Tuesday, 16 April to Thursday, 18 April in Abu Dhabi. The summit will address solutions for development in the transformation of future energy systems. The summit will also feature discussions on recycling, waste-to-energy, and air-to-water trends and progressions.

The UAE will host the Connecting Green Hydrogen MENA event from Tuesday, 23 April to Thursday, 25 April in Dubai. The event will explore green hydrogen partnerships, policies, and practices in the region, in parallel to a showcasing of the latest in the clean fuel’s technology.

Oman will host the Oman Sustainability Week from Sunday, 28 April to Thursday, 2 May in Muscat. The event will focus on exploring investment opportunities and implementing best practices in sustainability within the energy, water, and environmental sectors.

The UAE will host The Electric Vehicle Innovation Summit from Monday, 20 May to Wednesday, 22 May in Abu Dhabi. The event will see industry leaders come together to discuss sustainable mobility and tapping into groundbreaking advancements in electric vehicles while engaging with key decision-makers.

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