Good morning, nice people. We have a quick roundup today of all the latest happening in the region with a couple of large stories emerging from the UAE and KSA.
THE BIG CLIMATE STORY- The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) has signed an MoU to explore the acquisition of a stake in the 900 km high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector project between Greece and Cyprus.
^^ We have the details on this story and more in the news well, below.
THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- The UK will set import carbon taxes starting 2027: In efforts to safeguard local businesses against cheaper imports from markets with lax climate action strategies, the UK government plans to enforce its planned carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) on imported goods including iron, steel, fertilizers, hydrogen, ceramics, and cement staring 2027.
The details: The carbon levies will depend on the amount of carbon generated in the production of the imported goods, and the difference (if any) between the carbon price applicable in the country of origin and the carbon price faced by UK manufacturers. “This levy will make sure carbon intensive products from overseas — like steel and ceramics — face a comparable carbon price to those produced in the UK, so that our decarbonisation efforts translate into reductions in global emissions,” the country’s Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt notes in the statement.
The story made headlines in the international press:The Washington Post | ReutersEuronews | The Guardian | Bloomberg | AP News | The Financial Times | ABC News
WATCH THIS SPACE #1- It’s confirmed, OCI is selling its stakes in Iowa Fertilizer: The Sawiris-backed, Netherlands-headquartered chemicals company OCI Global will sell 100% of its USD 3.6 bn stake in the US crop nutrient unit Iowa Fertilizers to US’ Koch Ag & Energy Solutions, OCI said in a statement. The sale will be completed in 2024 pending US antitrust approval. OCI is planning to use the funds to explore investment options in the energy transition sector, while reducing the holding company's net debt and providing shareholders with high capital returns.
REMEMBER- A busy week for OCI: OCI also signed a binding agreement with Adnoc last week to offload a 50% stake in their joint venture Fertiglobe for AED 13.28 bn.
WATCH THIS SPACE #2- New capital requirements on Wall Street will rock the green finance boat: Basel 3 Endgame — the final stage of regulations imposed in the US after the 2008 financial crisis — is expected to significantly affect Wall Street’s biggest banks’ ability to finance green projects, Bloomberg wrote. The regulations will increase capital requirements for banks, making it more expensive for banks to provide funds, including funding to green projects. The new rules will “fundamentally alter” how banks in the world’s biggest economy approach risk, Ernst & Young told the business newswire.
The US’ biggest banks aren’t happy: JP Morgan alleges that the new rules would “for sure” affect its green projects financing, while Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon warned that the new regulations would push the capital requirements for some of its green energy products to “quadruple.” Citigroup Vice Chairman of Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory Jay Collins also chimed in on the topic in an interview cited by Bloomberg, claiming that “as long as there is so much policy noise and regulatory fog, the multifold increase in climate investment won’t happen.”
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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-
Qatar will host The International Conference on Smart Grid and Renewable Energy is kicking off Tuesday, 9 January through to Friday, 12 January in Doha. The conference will explore the importance of the smart grid and renewable energy resources and the viability of various related technologies. It will also host discussions on power electronics, controls, manufacturing, communications and computational intelligence.
Saudi Arabia will host the Future Minerals Forum from Tuesday, 9 January through to Thursday, 11 January in Riyadh. The event will bring nations and private sectors together to enable the creation of resilient mineral value chains in the resource rich regions of Africa, Western Asia, and Central Asia. The forum will hold a ministerial roundtable with over 60 countries being represented., and delegates will discuss global critical mineral strategies as well as an international exhibition with over 150 exhibitors and industry sponsors.
The UAE will host the Management and Sustainability of Water Resources Conference from Monday, 26 February to Wednesday 28 February in Dubai.The conference is set to address the importance of water resources availability in arid and semiarid regions and to discuss global water issues and address future water and environmental challenges.
Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.



