CCUS Market Assessment | MENA

CCUS  Market Assessment  | MENA

CCUS is gathering momentum across the world and is considered as a key solution for climate change mitigation. A growing number of countries mentioned CCUS (or related technology applications) in their Nationally Determined Contributions. In addition, the European Union developed an overarching NDC which covers the implementation of CCUS across all its member countries.

Therefore, the commitment of several large economies such as the European Union, the United States, Japan, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia to CCUS can be noticed. The interest in this technology can be explained by the fact that it is one of the optimal solutions to reduce the emissions in hard-to-abate industries such as cement, iron, aviation, and steel, as well as the oil and gas sector. Therefore, large emitters and players in such industries are increasingly driven to develop this technology to achieve their climate targets. The role of CCUS is particularly important in regions such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) where oil and gas industries’ technological prowess is a significant enabler in the deployment of clean tech solutions, such as CCUS to reduce GHG emissions. Several countries in the MENA region have already begun to invest in CCUS technology due to its effectiveness in removing emissions from the oil and gas industry and related production processes. All GHG emission reduction scenarios highlight the role of CCUS.

In this context, the International Energy Forum has estimated in its Comparative Analysis of Energy Outlooks, that to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, around 3.6 to 8.4 GtCO₂/y must be abated by 2050 according to IPCC IMP-1.5 and IRENA I.5-S projections (International Energy Forum, 2023). CCUS contributes to the mitigation of climate change through six levers: • Remove emissions from existing energy generation processes • Remove emissions from hard-to-abate sectors such as cement and steel production • Remove and capture carbon directly from the atmosphere • Facilitate the development of low-carbon production processes • Facilitate the production of clean hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, other synthetic e-fuels and materials through carbon dioxide utilization • Accelerate low carbon material production processes and accelerate transitions by increasing carbon utilization applications.

CCS and Hydrogen