{"id":79269,"date":"2023-08-30T01:00:43","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T01:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/climate\/2023\/08\/30\/today-one-step-closer-to-egypts-carbon-market\/"},"modified":"2023-08-30T01:00:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T01:00:43","slug":"today-one-step-closer-to-egypts-carbon-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/climate\/2023\/08\/30\/today-one-step-closer-to-egypts-carbon-market\/","title":{"rendered":"TODAY: One step closer to Egypt\u2019s carbon market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, friends. <\/strong>It\u2019s a busy Wednesday morning with regional updates across the board as we inch closer to the weekend. Let\u2019s jump right in.<\/p>\n

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY- <\/strong>Egypt\u2019s 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\u2019s first voluntary carbon market.<\/p>\n

^^ We have all the details on this story and more in the news well, below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- The US\u2019s first offshore wind auction in Gulf of Mexico is here:<\/strong> The US kicked off<\/a> its first ever offshore wind energy auction for the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as part of the Biden administration\u2019s 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\u2019s 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<\/p>\n

The auction is getting ink in international press:<\/strong> Reuters<\/a> | Bloomberg<\/a> | The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a>WATCH THIS SPACE - <\/strong>Saudi Arabia\u2019s Acwa Power aims to capture a 50% share of <\/strong>Egypt\u2019s renewables market by 2026<\/strong>, CEO Marco Arcelli told Daily News Egypt<\/a>. Arcelli explained that a planned USD 10 bn green investments<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

A closer look at the megaprojects:<\/strong> Acwa Power is developing a 1.1 GW wind farm in the Gulf<\/a>of Suez<\/a>. 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<\/a> in Sohag governorate, for which it signed a land allocation agreement last month. Acwa also owns the 200 MW Kom Ombo<\/a> 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\u2019s 1.8 GW Benban solar complex (pdf)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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DATA POINT-<\/strong> 2022 was the year for cost competitiveness: <\/strong>New renewable energy capacity added since 2000 has helped slash the electricity sector\u2019s fuel bill in 2022 by at least USD 520 bn, according to a report<\/a> 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\u2019s competitiveness benefitted from the fossil fuel price crisis last year, with around 86% \u2014 or 187 GW \u2014 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\u2019s Director-General Francesco La Camera said.<\/p>\n

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THE DANGER ZONE- <\/strong>Energy-related CO2 emissions will likely double the target set out <\/strong>by the UN in its 2 \u00b0C scenario by 2050<\/strong>, Bloomberg<\/a> reports, citing Exxon Mobil\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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