US, Saudi climate talks cover hydrogen, CCS
The US State Department announced June 16 that it intended to work together with Saudi Arabia to address climate issues, including through the use of hydrogen and CCS technology.
John Kerry, the US special envoy for climate, was in Riyadh to review opportunities for bilateral ways to address the challenges of a changing climate.
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“Both countries affirm the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and taking adaptation actions during the 2020s to avoid the worst consequences of climate change,” a note from the State Department read.
The readout of the meeting from the State Department said both sides would work on various green initiatives adopted in the Middle East in general. With an eye on a low-carbon future, the governments affirmed their intent to work collaboratively on options such as methane abatement and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
Both sides also expressed their willingness “to cooperate on the potential of clean hydrogen to address the hardest to abate sectors and to partner to accelerate clean hydrogen’s development and deployment, recognizing the two countries’ respective initiatives in this regard.”
This is the second such engagement between the US and Saudi Arabia. US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm in March spoke by phone with Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi energy minister, to discuss international cooperation on affordable and reliable energy sources.
“We also discussed closer collaboration to solve common challenges and develop renewable energy sources, increase efficiency, reduce methane in oil and gas production, and develop clean forms of hydrogen to combat climate change,” she said in a social media post.
Apart from ties with Western powers, oil giant Saudi Aramco and South Korean oil refining group Hyundai Oilbank agreed in March on the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Saudi Arabia to South Korea for producing blue hydrogen. CO2 from the process would then be transported back to Saudi Arabia, where it could be injected into mature oilfields to boost recovery while also sequestering it.