The clock is ticking on climate change. We currently have more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere than at any time in human history. 

As a result of our increasing economic activity, scientists estimate that, under one potential scenario, average temperatures could rise by 6 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. The consequences of that would be catastrophic for humanity. And the most alarming thing is that scientists call this scenario ‘business-as-usual’. 

But this does not have to be the outcome. The term ‘business-as-usual’ itself implies that there must be an ‘unusual’ alternative that leads to a different outcome. We at Standard Chartered are committed to helping our clients, communities, stakeholders and ourselves achieve the climate goals, as set out in the Paris Agreement, to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius.

We announced last year that we would develop a methodology to “measure, manage and ultimately reduce” the CO2 emissions from the activities we finance. We believe this is critical to enable us to meet these climate goals and support our clients through the low-carbon transition.

We can do this, but it won’t be easy. As a global bank, we operate in over 60 markets, many of which have fast-growing, increasingly prosperous economies which bring with them growing demand for energy, food, water and goods. We can help our communities meet that growing demand in a sustainable way, ensuring those markets have access to the capital they need to fund reliable, cleaner energy. 

We must also help them to improve their resilience to the potential impacts of climate change, of which they are often on the frontline. At Standard Chartered we believe we have both an obligation – and a unique opportunity – to help countries meet these challenges without compromising our collective climate goals. 

But like action on climate change itself, measuring emissions is complex and requires action from multiple parties. This is a challenge we cannot solve alone. Today, we are making public the work we have done to date to build our methodology. We want to use this to drive the conversation, to accelerate progress and to prevent duplicated efforts. As we see it, success depends on joint efforts among financial institutions to help collectively and continually refine this methodology, as well as widespread company disclosures of accurate and meaningful emissions data. 

With the objective of refining our framework, we’re collaborating with four other banks – BBVA, BNP Paribas, Société Générale and ING – through the Katowice Commitment to develop the methodologies and tools the banking sector needs to assess our own contribution to climate goals. We are making some progress, but with more collaborators, we can do more. 

We recognise that getting robust, verifiable data in many of our markets may take some time, but we are not waiting. We’ve joined forces with 2 Degrees Investing Initiative (2DII), a climate think tank to pilot a software tool which provides emissions assessments, the actions and findings of which can be found in our emissions white paper. Our pilot has shown a lot of promise, and with the help of other banks and stakeholders, we can make more headway and find answers to the challenges we have identified: getting the right data, validating it and scaling it up to cover 100 per cent of our portfolio.

Of course, none of our actions will matter without the efforts of companies across our markets. Disclosures are critical, to show current progress in the transition to a low-carbon future, and help us and other banks understand where capital is needed to complete this transition. There is much we can do in working with clients to assess, and improve, their emissions profiles. 

Disclosures make perfect business sense – the Paris Agreement is expected to open up climate investment opportunities of USD23 trillion in emerging markets between now and 2030, according to the IFC. Much of this investment flow will be guided by and dependent on emissions data. When the private sector recognises its business case, disclosures on climate-related matters can become the new ‘business-as-usual’.

The stakes cannot be overstated. To ensure that the flow of capital reaches the places where it is needed most to achieve climate goals, the world must work together and fast. ‘Business-as-usual’ as we know it is no longer acceptable; let’s all come together to help ensure the sustainability of our planet. 

By Bill Winters, Group CEO / Group CEO, Standard Chartered

Industry is responsible for 32 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile in heavy industry between 20-50 per cent of energy input is lost as waste heat. This energy is already paid for by the factories in their energy bills and is purely and simply wasted via their chimneys by being ejected into the atmosphere.  
Even worse, is that, often supplementary parasitic energy is required to cool down fumes before filtering the flue gas. In other words, more energy and more money is spent to dispose of waste heat. One solution is called waste heat recovery (WHR).

If we consider waste heat only above 150°C, it represents roughly 2,600 TWh of energy per year worldwide, the equivalent of 31 times the UAE yearly energy demand, or the future annual production of 53 Barakah Nuclear Energy Plants. By recovering this “free” energy, we could potentially save about 1,800 million tonnes of CO2 per year worldwide to help in the fight against climate change. 

This concerns many industries such as the primary metal industry (iron, steel, or aluminium, etc.), but also the ceramic, glass, cement or petro-chemistry industries, that are all already present in the UAE. The idea is to install heat exchangers by way of the exhaust flue gas to recover thermal energy by cooling down the fumes. This thermal energy can be stored, transferred, and re-injected as process heat, or can power a heat engine to produce carbon-free electricity or cooling in the client’s industrial site.  

Seramic is a start-up company established in the Masdar City Free Zone in October 2018. Our ambition is to drive energy intensive industry towards a more sustainable future. We are developing a unique eco-economy model by enhancing energy efficiency in industrial processes, reducing carbon emissions, and recycling industrial waste into value-added products.  It is important to note that we are technology agnostic. Indeed, Seramic is performing a technical energy audit (TEA) on our clients’ sites to propose the best technology adapted to their needs. 

Then we offer turn-key solutions that preserve the industrial process integrity, using only proven equipment. We are across all stages of the project, from the TEA, to the proposal and design of the solution, until the commissioning. Finally, we take care of the operation & maintenance so the client can continue to focus on what they do best, while we concentrate on developing energy projects.  

Our business model includes the capital investment so the client doesn’t even have to invest one cent. Very often, the clients have already thought about energy efficiency solutions in their plants as they are effected by any energy commodity bill increase, which affects the cost of their final products and makes their factory less competitive. 

However, often these companies and businesses prefer to invest in what they already know rather than investing in something they are not familiar with, which is energy. Seramic and its partners solve this issue by investing for the client and the resulting savings are then shared. It’s a win-win-win situation. We are developing a profitable eco-business, the client saves money on its monthly energy bill, and at the same time we are protecting the environment by decarbonizing heavy industry.

As an example, we are developing a first project in Abu Dhabi where the client will save about 10 per cent of its yearly carbon emissions and we will produce up to 50 per cent of its electricity consumption usually taken from the grid, to be replaced by the WHR system. 

For further information you can send an email to contact@seramic.eco or visit our website at www.seramic.eco.

By Dr. Nicolas Calvet / Co-founder & CEO of Seramic

ENGIE is one of the leading Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP) developers and producers in the world, with a strong regional footprint in the GCC dating back 30 years.

Discussions at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week earlier this year centred around ENGIE’s proven world class capabilities and experience in water production, with a view to understanding the main themes and technological trends that will impact and shape water production in the region in the coming years.

With a total gross portfolio of generating more than 30 GW of power and over 5.7 million cubic meters of desalinated water production in operation per day, in line with their commitment to enhancing their investments in the region, ENGIE are aiming to increase their asset portfolio, with a strong focus on the more energy efficient process of Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO).

Historically thermal desalination has been a fundamental part of many power and water projects in the region. More recently however, SWRO has been added to either enhance thermal desalination or replace it entirely, providing the ability to “decouple” the production of water from power generation assets and thereby carefully synchronising with each very specific demand cycle.

This has the benefit of reducing the challenges of having ‘must run’ cogeneration to produce water during the lowest periods of electricity demand. In addition, the use of reverse osmosis (RO) has been proven to be more energy efficient thereby reducing costs and the impact on the environment.

Consequently, the region is witnessing a great deal of interest in medium sized and large SWRO desalination projects. The UAE is at the forefront of this transition and has already launched large scaleRO projects, such as Mirfa IWPP, which includes a 30 MIGD SWRO desalination component as well as Fujairah F2 where 30 MIGD of the 130 MIGD total desalination capacity is based on reverse osmosis, both of which have been successfully developed by ENGIE, as global leader in the technology in partnership with the local authorities and are currently in operation.

World standard expertise and experience in developing and operating large scale RO projects, are key to being able to contribute and assist the relevant authorities in the region to transition towards a more efficient water production future. ENGIE is at the forefront of working with and developing the latest water production technology and benefits from extensive in-house operating experience, including partnerships with first class contractors and can negotiate with financing institutions to secure the best available procurement and financing terms. As demonstrated by a proven track record in Abu Dhabi, in delivering the most cost-effective yet efficient and reliable power and water production in the Emirate.

Leading in-house operations, engineering excellence and maintenance expertise is absolutely vital to operate both reverse osmosis and thermal desalination plants in parallel, which must be backed up with very high efficiency in order to lower the carbon footprint.

Above all, key providers in the water generation and power industry must be fundamentally committed to delivering best-in-class solutions that minimise the impact on the environment, by implementing action plans to avoid, reduce and if necessary, compensate them while optimally managing the resources at its disposal. ENGIE for example is most focussed on providing technical solutions to mitigate the environmental impact in the following areas:

• Climate change, leading to the global warming of the atmosphere and oceans, but also the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events caused by the increase in emissions of greenhouse gases due to the consumption of fossil fuels.
• The management of water resources whether it is fresh, drinkable or wastewater treatment.
• Biodiversity management in different environments or territories potentially impacted by human activities.
• The management of air quality and the issue of green mobility.
• The more general challenge of intelligent management of all resources consumed and the waste produced to propagate a circular and sustainable economy.
  
  

By Sébastien Arbola / Chief Executive Officer of ENGIE Middle East, South & Central Asia and Turkey Business Unit