Doha, Qatar: With carbon capture and storage marked as a key technology in fighting climate change, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is investing big in new infrastructure to make sure the region stands out as a sustainability leader.

The recent issue of Forbes Middle East highlighted the GCC’s carbon roadmap. It noted that in 2019, Qatar unveiled a carbon capture facility at Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas, bringing QatarEnergy Projects’ total capacity to 2.2 million tonnes per year. In 2022, QatarEnergy and General Electric inked a memorandum of understanding to chart a carbon capture roadmap for Qatar. The country aims to increase carbon capture and storage project capacity to 11 million tonnes per year of CO2 by 2035.

The International Energy Agency stated that if all CCUS’s projects in the pipeline were realised, CO2 capture capacity would increase more than eight times from about 45 million tons to almost 400 million tons annually by 2030 and would provide nearly 40 percent of what is needed by 2030 globally. Notably, Wood Mackenzie projected in 2022 that carbon capture technology can contribute up to 20 percent of the emissions reduction needed for global net zero by 2050.

As of December 2023, the Global CCS Institute identified over 390 carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities in diverse stages of development worldwide. In the corporate realm, 2023 witnessed widespread support for carbon capture technology.

Global CCS Institute has evidenced that a staggering 100-fold increase in CCS projects is imperative to meet the international climate targets set for 2050, and around 10 percent of the globally captured CO2 emanates from the industrial facilities of the Gulf states in 2022.

The report further stated, Saudi Arabia is building CCS technologies plants with a capacity of 8.4 GW, aligned with its target to reduce carbon emissions by 278 million tons per year by 2030.

In December 2023, Dubai Financial Market (DFM) announced that trading commenced on its carbon credits pilot platform, which is expected to exceed $50bn by 2030.

In a move aligning with the national zero carbon strategy 2050, Oman’s Environment Authority launched the Oman Blue Carbon project with MSA Green Projects in 2023. This project aims to plant 100 million mangrove trees across the Sultanate, resulting in a reduction of CO2 emissions by 14 million tons over four years.

The potential earnings from carbon credits are estimated at $160m, while the project’s economic and financial revenues are expected to reach $150m.