“How can carbon neutrality be achieved without threatening national and international oil needs?” The question constituted the main focus of the net zero carbon emission session, which was held within the second edition of the Green Saudi Initiative forum in Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday.
The session discussion emphasized that “extreme solutions'' could not be adopted, in light of the increased demand for oil. The demand for oil and gas still represents 98 percent of the total energy use in the world, compared to only 2 percent for renewable energies.
During the panel discussion moderated by Angela Wilkinson, Secretary-General and CEO of the World Energy Council, participants agreed on the “importance of developing appropriate technologies that help reduce emissions, the balance between fossil fuels and renewable energies.”
Lord Adair Turner, chair of the UK’s Energy Transitions Commission, said that the de-carbonization of electric power production could help achieve the goals of carbon neutrality. He called for the development of technologies that can support this direction.
Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of the US Baker Hughes company, agreed with Turner’s view, stressing that the technology to be developed should not focus on a specific type of fuel, but rather include all types.
Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of a carbon recycling company, LanzaTech, focused on the circular carbon economy, and the importance of converting carbon emissions into ethanol used in jet fuel.
She called for the need to accelerate the pace of this endeavor, despite the existing financing obstacles.
“This is an important path if we want to achieve zero neutrality, in addition to reaching a balance between fossil fuels and other renewable energy sources,” she said.
For his part, Fahd Al-Ajlan, head of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, said that all these solutions and others required long and short-term policies, noting that the Green Saudi Initiative contained a clear strategy to achieve zero neutrality.
