Good morning, wonderful people. It’s finally Thursday, and we’re ready for the weekend. But first, we have a couple of key developments from Saudi Arabia.

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY- KSA’s Taqa will form a JV with Iceland’s Reykjavik Geothermal to explore sources of geothermal energy in Saudi Arabia, and Saudi oil giant Aramco will work with British chemicals company Linde on ammonia cracking technologies and the establishment of a demonstration facility in Germany. We have more on these stories in the news well, below.

ICYMI- EnterpriseAM has an explainer on what exactly green fuels are, where things stand, and what needs to happen for the industry to take off.

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- The impact of SVB’s collapse on finance for climate startups leaves press divided: The international business press was on two sides of the coin yesterday on the impact the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) will have on the global climate tech and finance sectors. Bloomberg notes that the lender’s collapse is likely to hold back the sector as a result of the termination of its USD 3.2 bn commitment to fund innovation in the field, with the Wall Street Journalsharing the same sentiment. Meanwhile, Reuters quoted UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance Mark Carney as saying the bank’s collapse would not have a “material” impact on the availability of financing for climate tech startups.

WATCH THIS SPACE #1- A hydrogen fueling station for Oman’s airport: Oman Shell and Oman Airports Management will set up solar-powered green hydrogen fueling stations near Oman International Airport by 2024, according to a statement. The Green Hydrogen for Mobility project will see the development of Shell’s first on-site hydrogen production unit built to fuel 15 hydrogen cars provided by Shell, the statement notes.

WATCH THIS SPACE #2- 2023 will be a make it or break it year for EV production: Rising energy prices, lack of subsidies, and costly minerals extraction could stall the EV industry in 2023, according to research by US consulting firm Gartner. The global EV market is facing a host of obstacles, including European electricity price hikes, a rise in taxation, the end of Chinese EV subsidies, and rising prices of critical minerals essential to EV production. Heftier minerals price tags would make it more challenging for EV makers to plug the production price gap compared to cheaper combustion engine vehicles, delaying the growth of EV manufacturing globally, Gartner says.

China is on track to acquire half of the global EV market in the next few years: China has over 15 EV manufacturers already producing and selling all-electric cars at more affordable prices relative to competing brands, the research notes. The country’s wealth of critical minerals — supplying 60% of the world’s rare earths — along with its battery manufacturing edge could lead it to capture more than 50% of global EV sales by 2026, according to Gartner.

WATCH THIS SPACE #3- Almost 60% of companies don’t disclose supply chain emissions: Only 59% of the 18.5k firms using nonprofit CDP’s global system for reporting environmental impact disclose their supply chain emissions, a new CDP report found. Only 41% of the studied firms are reporting their scope 3 emissions — greenhouse gasses indirectly generated in companies’ value chains, according to CDP’s findings. Some 70% do not assess the impact of their value chain’s carbon emissions on biodiversity in spite of upcoming mandatory regulations stipulating carbon impact disclosure on nature like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, CDP notes.

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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Denmark will host the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial next Monday and Tuesday in Copenhagen. The event is the first political high-level gathering to follow-up on the COP27 summit’s conclusions and agreements. Denmark and co-hosts Egypt and the UAE will address the need to establish continuity between the last climate summit and November’s COP28, and progress on how targets align with the Paris agreement.

Germany will host The Infrastructure Investor Global Summit from Monday-Friday, 20-24 March in Berlin. The four-day event will gather industry leaders from the global infrastructure sector to map out a course for the industry to upscale its ESG-focused operations and investments. You can register for the event here.

The US will host the UN Water Conference from Wednesday, 22 March to Friday, 24 March in New York. The conference is a midterm review of the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development launched in 2018.

The first MENA Solar Conference is accepting applications from published researchers specialized in PV technology until Sunday, 30 April. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority will be hosting the conference from 15 to 18 November, in conjunction with the Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition and the Dubai Solar Show 2023. Researchers can submit their papers here.

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