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Tech: The Solution to MENA's Decarbonization | |
| Sumita Pawar |
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region faces a trilemma of access, cost, and emissions as it strives to meet its decarbonization commitments. While the region has been a reliable source of global energy for decades, it must now find ways to cut emissions while ensuring a consistent and affordable energy supply.
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The optimal pathway for decarbonization varies between countries based on the cost of abatement measures and the available natural resources.
In the case of MENA, decarbonization focuses on technology-based solutions due to the limited availability of nature-based pathways. However, many of these solutions, such as carbon capture and storage and green hydrogen, are not yet mature enough or too expensive to scale. Therefore, MENA must maximise existing avoidance strategies to cut emissions.
The region's climate also has remarkable potential for renewable and emerging energy sources, which could help MENA and other regions advance their decarbonization journeys. The article suggests that each region should tailor its decarbonization strategies according to local environmental factors that determine the reduction potential and abatement costs.
The analysis reveals that regions with natural carbon sinks and abundant vegetation have cost-effective, nature-based options to remove residual emissions, while technology-based avoidance solutions are better choices for regions, such as MENA, that lack natural carbon sinks.
Furthermore, removal strategies, such as direct air capture, are cost-prohibitive. The article concludes that companies in the GCC and the MENA region must prioritise emissions avoidance and minimise emissions across their value chains because removal strategies are more expensive.
The lifetime abatement potential per unit of investment varies by region, with afforestation and other nature-based solutions being relatively more attractive for the North American/European energy producer archetype. In contrast, each unit of investment in solar energy would reduce emissions by twice as much as it would in a comparable North American or European country in the MENA archetype.