Good morning, folks. It’s a finance heavy day with all the latest details on Adnoc’s acquisition of Fertiglobe along with news that Amea Power intends to invest in Spanish energy firm Cox’s upcoming IPO. First, let’s take a look at Google’s interest in nuclear power…

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- Google throws support behind nuclear power: Tech giant Google has inked an agreement to purchase power from atomic energy company Kairos Power to meet the growing energy demand from data centers. This marks the first corporate agreement worldwide to buy nuclear energy from small modular reactors (SMRs) — compact, moveable, and easily assembled nuclear reactors with up to 300 MW power capacity per unit. The first SMR is set to come online by 2030, with additional reactor deployments following through to 2035, bringing up to 500 MW of clean energy to US grids.

Not everyone is a fan of SMRs: Critics argue that SMRs may still be expensive due to the lack of economies of scale from which larger plants benefit. Proponents believe that Google’s move can potentially offset this and “seed” the industry’s growth. SMRs are also expected to generate long-lasting nuclear waste, and studies have found that waste from SMRs could actually be more voluminous and chemically or physically reactive.

The story made headlines in the international press: Reuters | Bloomberg | Financial Times | BBC | The Guardian | The Verge | Al Jazeera | Wall Street Journal | CNBC

COP WATCH-

The EU announces COP29 negotiation positions but swerves financing details: The European Union has announced its “negotiating position” for the COP29 summit, reaching a consensus that all countries need to contribute to achieving the new post-2025 climate finance goal without concrete details on how funds will be channeled to poorer nations, according to a statement. The summit, set to focus on transforming USD bns in climate finance into tns, aims to support emerging countries in climate transition and address increasingly extreme weather.

Shifting the responsibility? With many EU countries, including some of its biggest economies like France and Germany, facing severe budget deficits, the bloc is pushing for more contributions from the private sector and other nations, particularly China, to contribute more to the global climate finance effort, Bloomberg reports. The EU’s call to expand the donor base highlights the ongoing challenges in securing adequate funding to meet the ambitious goals set by the international community.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Ewec is lining up a new wind farm: Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec) has issued a call for an Expression of Interest (EOI) to develop the 140 MW Al Sila wind farm, according to a press release. The plant will have a capacity to power 36k homes and offset some 190k tonnes of CO2 annually. The deadline for submissions is 5 November.

Ewec has been busy: The company invited developers and consortiums earlier this month to submit an EOI for the development of the 1.5 GW Zarraf solar PV IPP in Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra Region. Masdar is also developing a 27 MW wind farm at Al Sila as part of the UAE’s first wind program with a total capacity of 103.5 MW.

#2- Egypt’s SCZone gets ready to launch large-scale green hydrogen projects: Five large-scale green hydrogen projects will kick off construction within a year on five plots of land currently being prepared by the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the SCZone’s executive director told Al Mal. The projects should be completed within four years, Saad added.

The zone’s first water desalination public-private partnership is also set to be launched, which will be used to help produce green hydrogen in the zone, Saad added.

#3- Biodiversity on Wall Street’s radar for the first time ahead of COP16: The world’s biggest lenders — including JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and Citigroup — are attending the UN’s COP16 biodiversity summit for the first time next week, Bloomberg reports. Investment in targeted biodiversity funds is limited, currently estimated at just USD 4 bn of volume, according to data by MorningStar Direct. Banks are having a change of heart as biodiversity rears financial potential, with “biodiversity-labeled funds” expected to outperform other green indices, such as the S&P Global Clean Energy Index close in 2024.

This is a necessary development: The UN had warned that private finance was essential to gather enough money to stop mass extinctions and the destruction of natural ecosystems. COP16 will gather negotiators to examine progress made on the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to reverse nature loss by 2030 — a feat that will require USD 700 bn per year — but so far, only 10% of participating countries have submitted required action plans.

Involvement is still ambiguous: Banks have not made any official commitments to nature and biodiversity financing just yet, and the world is far off from a global voluntary market similar to carbon markets due to a lack of mature frameworks, said the head of nature and biodiversity at JPMorgan Gwen Yu. JPMorgan, for example, is attending COP16 to see how biodiversity “fits into our book” and if there is client demand.

What would private biodiversity financing look like? Currently, biodiversity products include the public finance instrument debt-for-nature swaps — which is when governments refinance debt to then put it towards conservation — and the tactic has since expanded to private finance but remains at a low volume of USD 1.6 bn, according to Bloomberg data. However, there are signs of growth as more banks gain interest. Biodiversity credits are another option that involves addressing a company’s impact on biodiversity in a similar manner to the carbon credits concept.

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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Egypt will host the World Urban Forum from Monday, 4 November to Friday, 8 November in Cairo. The forum, established by the UN and one of its largest non-legislative events, will center around the effect of rapid urbanization on communities, economies, climate change, and policies and will bring together government representatives, academics, business people, urban planners, and more.

South Africa will host the Critical Mineral Africa Summit from Wednesday, 6 November to Thursday, 7 November, in Cape Town. The summit aims to attract critical minerals investment to the continent and will be held alongside African Energy Week. The summit will be held in partnership with the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce Partners representing Germany’s increasing investments in southern Africa.

Azerbaijan will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (COP29) from Monday, 11 November to Friday, 22 November in Baku. The annual conference brings together governments, world leaders, and other stakeholders to advance the Paris Agreement and negotiate ways to fight climate change. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s objective is to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

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