Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World

[M021-01] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:00 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

First of all, I cannot start with the so-called pseudo-prepared remarks without the duty of giving recognition to the young women and men who had been active in attending to this mammoth job of Saudi Arabia, being taking over attending to the presidency of the G20. One of the activities is this one the G20, I am full of a great deal of gratitude to King Khalid Foundation for taking the lead in this endeavor, I am also grateful to Princess Nouf Bint Mohammed Bin Abdullah, who is both the chair of the Saudi side of the G20 plus she is the executive director of the King Khalid Foundation.

[M021-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:08 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I certainly would also extend my deepest gratitude to the young women and men that are volunteering or working with her in also making sure that thousands and thousands of Saudis, and also our friends and colleagues from the G20 who labored hard to ensure that we have a successful G20 albeit with all what is been going on in terms of challenging humanitarian situation. I still keep emphasizing that COVID-19 not only impacted the economies and the well-being of people, but I think it is first and foremost a humanitarian tragedy, there are thousands and thousands of people who lost their loved ones.

[M021-03] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:06 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We should take stock of this experience one day and hopefully, ensure that a repeat of this situation with the good work and international collaboration, that we should mitigate the possibility of reoccurrence to a situation like what we are into. However be it as it may, it is life and life dictates that we should look ahead and continue pursuing our hopes, objectives and aspiration and while attending to this situation preparing today, it should actually put some invigoration to our endeavor not to let down the future generations and also continue imperative in making sure that we still continue attending to the biggest and more important job, which is how to build a better future for planet Earth and for the generations that will come and make a judgment about how good we left the world for them and how much they will be enabled to attend to even their futuristic aspiration as these generations come forward to the fora of laboring hard to achieve their own future and own aspiration.

[M021-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:48 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So, in a nutshell, I also would like to thank the attendance from all over the world and civil societies, those who have interest in continue running the agenda that talks again about collaboration and really seeing the world as a global village, whereby people need to associate, labor and congregate because without working in silos and cocooned environment, I do not think that we will reach the so-called global solutions that we are aspiring all for to achieve. In that endeavor, I wish we had had that opportunity to have these meetings in Saudi Arabia because it would have been better to show you the new Saudi Arabia that unfortunately COVID 19 did not enable us to demonstrate and exhibit as well as we should have if it was not for the lack of mobility.

[M021-05] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:25 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

In this endeavor, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed is building a new Saudi Arabia, which is young, innovative, optimistic, responsible and full of ambition and as a subordinate to his highness, I have to emphasize that it is all about educated, trained and full of aspiration youths. So to ensure that we do the good work for the generation to come, we are hoping as Saudi Arabia a journey of energy transition.

[M021-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:06:19 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

we feel and we have a record to show that we are the lowest-cost producer as well as other countries within the region and including Russia that would be able to keep selling their oil the longest. What is stronger are climate policies, which should focus not just on the greenhouse gases emitted by burning a fuel, but the carbon intensity of the entire production cycle. Most Gulf countries are very efficient producers, with easy-to-extract barrels, less methane leakages, and lower flaring rates, they have some of the lowest lifecycle emissions associated with their oil. With part of the solution, definitely I would enter to say we would never accept to be part of the problem and we will never settle to be part of the solution.

[M021-07] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:07:25 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But our full-fledged commitment is that, I would say it in a British way, we should elbow our way of taking the lead and being the source of the solutions and to demonstrate this in the recent G20 ministerial meeting, where the Energy Ministers of the World leading economies endorsed our strategy to adapt the circular current carbon economy as a holistic, inclusive and pragmatic approach to manage GHG emissions, recognizing that GHG emissions is a challenge, the circular carbon economy is the technology-based approach of offering solutions to manage such emissions by adapting all possible delivers across the 4Rs. The 4Rs - as some of you may know and we could go on discussing them if you want - are mainly reducing emissions, reusing CO2 and the other GHGs, recycling and removing and we could elaborate, but I have much more things to talk about and I do not want to take all the time available for our other participant.

[M021-08] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:09:01 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

King Abdullah Research Center (KAPSARC) has a dedicated website on Circular Carbon Economy and with collaboration with many of the international organizations that are interested in that, just to name a few: The IEA ARENA ,NEA and JCCSI along with the OECD, in that you will see a lot of collaborative work and we shall continue to do that with many of the potential stakeholders. In the Kingdom we are formally launching dedicated Circular Carbon Economy National Program that will consolidate and accelerate the current momentum towards sustainability and in a holistic manner.

[M021-09] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:09:57 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Today, we already have more than 100 ongoing and planned initiatives in the Kingdom across 45 stakeholders with very exciting expected results, to highlight just a few of our flagship projects and again I just want to enumerate them but I would be more than glad and happy to share a few of these programs and what we are doing with them, some of them we have started even before, some of them are we have just been embarking on them to activate them and certainly some of them we will ensure that we execute them so long as we address the challenging issues of technology, economics and what have you, and actually with a view to make sure that our approach is open to participants of all creeds and all institutions that have the same interest. But, mainly, we are focusing on the 4Rs as they said in terms of reduce we are up and running with a serious national efficiency program and we will ensure that we will outpace everybody in terms of efficiency.

[M021-10] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:11:21 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We have a good record so far to name few, we have been reducing energy intensity, we have been improving the fuel efficiency, we have been even inducing building standards that go as high as 50% of the old days as we were. True also, we are engaged in a renewable program, both solar and wind and our commitment, not aspiration but commitment, that by 2030, our power sector will be shifting dramatically to about almost close to 50% of renewables, along with shifting using liquids and substituting it for gas

[M021-11] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:23 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We are moving towards green hydrogen and we already made a good name. We are the first exporter of ammonia and that include hydrogen and will be used in Japan for power purposes. This is the blue hydrogen and the green hydrogen; we are going to be executing a 5 billion project, which will be the biggest project to generate a green hydrogen. So, we have something not to brag about, but to really demonstrate and show it as we move on, we will show case to everybody.

[M021-12] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:13:18 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We are also engaged in serious enhanced oil recovery programs that will use CO2 as a way to recycle and use CO2 seriously involved in carbon capture utilization. and again, it is the best of the two words because we identify that carbon and O2 are materials and should not be thrown away but actually you could make use of them and we have SABIC is pioneering and we have the project in ground to make sure that people can physically visit to see how much we will be using CO2 to make better use of it, including we have serious material program in the ministry, which we call it sustainability program.

[M021-13] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:14:12 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I think, if I may talk about it also, we would ensure that we would look at ways and means of using hydrocarbon and creating new markets for it and new ways of using it, as opposed to the current maturing markets that are existing today. It is a challenge and we accept the challenge, but we feel that every molecule of hydrocarbon should be used. So, long as in an environmentally sound, effective and efficient way. We also, as Saudi Arabia, have embarked in a program on tree plantations. It is a Saudi program and we are still aspiring for an international program that would be accepted or approved or moved by peers to see that tree planting is the best approach to create things and therefore adaptation is part of our agenda as Saudi Arabia and we have shown and demonstrated our willingness to be participants with any group of countries that can carry on pursuing this endeavor.

[M021-14] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:15:44 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We are also focusing on blue carbon, which has to do with mangroves and we have again physical evidence to show for it that we are growing mangroves along the coastal lines of the Gulf and especially around our oil facilities. It is there, it is physical, you can google it and you can look at it .There are currently thousands of CCE Technologies and applications within the utility and manufacturing sector alone, which contribute to about two-thirds of our emissions in Saudi Arabia. We have already identified more than 275 potential technologies and applications across the 4Rs that can make major contribution toward achieving a circular carbon economy within our country. We understand that many of these CCE Technologies are still in early stages and significant R&D is required over the coming years and decades.

[M021-15] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:17:00 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Hence, we have worked out with our research institutions and labs and congregated with many other parties in Saudi Arabia to ensure that we have a serious R&D program economically sound, efficiently sound and making sure that it is ready for it to continue and to have that longevity it should be economically sound. As a critical enabler of the circular carbon economy and its 4Rs are having a standardized methodology of measuring emission which is a critical effort as part of our circular carbon economy national program to enable consistent emission monitoring. We want to figure out our performance. We want to give KPI our commitment, and we have bosses that want to make sure that they can demonstrate to our national partners that we will be in business and we are serious and attentive to these endeavors.

[M021-16] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:18:20 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Another critical enabler for most of CC initiatives is funding and effective business model. We are evaluating funding options and assessing lessons learned from global successes and also failures to determine how we can support similar initiatives in the kingdom and we hope that we can prepare these models for which we can share it with others. Therefore, there should be a kind of an internationalization to these practices, including funding agencies, banks and lending institutions, both global international lending institutions or private and commercial lending institutions. We are currently building our forecast model which with scenarios purpose identify where to prioritize our resources to achieve cost-effective emission reduction in the kingdom and I talk about Kingdom of Saudi Arabia not any other kingdom or Lala Land.

[M021-17] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:19:25 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Taking this holistic approach to the GHG emission abatement will enable a significant social economic benefit from the Circular Carbon Economy and just to name few there will be an economic uplift, there will be investment efficiency, there will be energy access and it is a fundamental issue for us in Saudi Arabia. We owed to everybody in the world that energy access should be a fundamental issue, should be a global issue. There are millions and millions of people are not getting educated because of lack of power. There are millions and billions of people who are still using biomass because they do not have the right fuel to use and therefore also they are meeting lots of emissions as a result of that.

[M021-18] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:20:24 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

If we cannot reach out to these billions of people with solutions albeit to make a sustainable commercial solution, then I do not know what else can we be doing? And there will be also as a result of that a comprehensive sector coverage which would may look at the whole system as our energy system. I am very proud to say that I have been working with so many hundreds of women and men where we have a comprehensive approach of how we look at energy from both the energy mix efficiency, CCE and how we can generate a new pattern non-competitive way of using hydrocarbon and also we are reaching out to the new challenges and as I said hydrogen and how can take the lead on these things.

[M021-19] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:21:36 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

we are actively engaged with the international entities from all over the world and certainly we are quite open to use a free mean to reach out everybody, international organizations, countries, research labs and everyone who has any interest in being part of our story and our endeavor will be most welcomed. Finally, I would say a few words because in His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohmmed’s endeavor to build a new Saudi Arabia, which is young, innovative, optimistic, responsive and full of ambition and certainly, as I said, we will be going on our way to take the lead.

[M021-20] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:22:39 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We have a determined young population, they are funding for their future, they will continue putting the effort, time and they have the right education, the right training will continue to build their own expertise. But as I said, they are full of ambition, they are fully figured and they are full of unrelentness will to be in creating these solution, they are funding for their future and they are funding for the future of generations to come.

[M021-21] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:23:25 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I take it really and I am not trying be engaged in any type of niceties, but I truly believe in that I have the honor and pleasure of working with hundreds of young women and men and I emphasize the world I work with because they do their remote controlling for me and they do tell me what to do and I am here just to facilitate their work. But trust me, they are the big bosses and I am very fortunate to have young ambitious determined bosses that I work with. Without much I do and because I am trying to be the embodiment, if I could call of their aspiration, I would have to say, as being a subordinate to Prince Mohammed, I am not only an energy minister, I am an environmentalist energy minister committed to the call for a sustainable and cleaner energy future and thank you very much for giving me that time.

[M021-23] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:25:28 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

If you permit me, I think it is a contradiction because, as I said earlier, carbon is a material; carbon can be made use of it. To be realistic that is whole thing about the CCE. It is a realistic approach of how we can mitigate, adapt and make sure that we become a dominator among all participants in the G20 and others who are going to engage in a realistic approach is just to make sure that our common denominator is reduction of emission, be it with any type of technology I think it should be the common denominator and the common aspiration for all of us.

[M021-24] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:26:22 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

When you talk about decarbonizing and you have to be blunt and clear. You are always saying we do not want to use hydrocarbons, which would make hundreds and millions of people chuckled with that so-called endeavor, because we have to be honest; are we after reducing hydrocarbon or are we after reducing emissions? What would help the world? What would help the world is reduction of emissions. So if the endeavor is reduction of emissions not only the carbon but also the GHG.

[M021-25] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:27:14 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I think we should be open to congregate around that object, why? Because the aspiration is to reduce emissions of all gases to ensure that we reduce the temperature of planet Earth to a certain degree, that is the endeavor, how we can do it? We should be flexible enough, congenial enough, adaptive enough to ensure that there are countries that have their own national circumstances, and if you want to have their buying in and if you want to have the commitment, you should be cognizant of their grievances and their concerns.

[M021-27] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:29:06 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Thank you Jurgen and thank you to our colleagues from panelists. I continue to learn and I will continue learn as long as I live. First of all, I hate to disappoint you, I have a longer record than yours and I have been part of this climate change discussion ever since 30 years ago. So, you cannot beat my record in attending and I would emphasize that we were one of the first to be a participant and I think we would show you and our colleagues and those who hear us that we have been a party to all of these agreements that came out including Paris agreement and because we want to be committed and discharge our commitment as the agreement should be executed.

[M021-28] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:30:12 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We are here, as I said, trying to make sure that we attend to our commitments in the most diligent, effective and we want to take a lead on that. So, we will not being trying to be difficult, as being trying to realistic. We opt for real solution to achieve real conclusion and for that, we will continue to be engaged with that sense of realism, as opposed to be a sense of utopia. People can differ fine but you know, let us make our differences a mean to enable us to challenge ourselves and to ensure that we congregate around the real issues. The real issue of all of our discussions in climate change is to make sure that we temper the temperature of Planet Earth that is what has been extrapolated is to reduce the temperature by 1.5 degrees

[M021-29] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:31:30 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The real issue is that you can do that through the reduction of the emissions of the GHGs. That is the real objective, which means that we will have to work with everything, we feel comfortable with the idea of the CCE, Why? Because it is really inclusive of every idea that I have heard there. Danny was talking about Circular Economy, the CCE is an enlargement, an enhancement of the circular economy, Why? Because it includes the resource, the energy and emission flows, so it is a buildup that makes the whole thing more inclusive.

[M021-30] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:32:31 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Our other friend whom I am trying to debate, She talks about delivers of Africa, she and Daniel know that Saudi development fund works with so many African countries and reaching out to these endeavors. Along with funding enough, OPEC fund is engaged with so many of these and along with other Islamic fund and those funds that we have something to do with will be engaged with Africa and let me also share two numbers which clearly occupied my mind, as I said, environmentalists and Saudi Energy Minister, Let us not forget that 2.8 million citizens of this planet Earth, who do not have access to any meaningful way of clean cooking fuel.

[M021-31] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:33:39 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Let us not forget ever that we have 800 million citizens of this planet Earth don not have any type of energy accessibility. If we are to address all of that, we should look for all of the above; we should use “reduce” which may include the decarburization as our friend was saying it would be efficiency, it could be all of the above. But I think what it can bring us all together is this so-called common objective reducing temperature through reducing emissions of all gases that cause the temperature to go higher.

[M021-32] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:34:29 · Realizing the Potential of Green Energy_ Political Will in the Perilous Modern World · 2020-10-10 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

If we can congregate on these two goals, we promise ourselves that we would invigorate ourselves in every meaningful way, without preconceived conclusions and we look for the most meaningful and most economically effective approach without preconceived domain where we make any source of energy being laced with the idea it is incompatible today's and tomorrow's energy mix, I think we will have an excellent way forward. We are inclusive and we would like to be part of this global effort and not only that, as a I promised everybody, we will be pioneering and we will add our way to be the first and lead with so many of these things. Trust us we have been well because we are, after all, citizens of this planet Earth.