ESG

SAUDI TAKES BOLD STRIDES TO DEEPEN ESG COMMITMEN

Saudi Arabia is making big inroads in boosting its environmental governance.

Green spaces in key municipal areas across the kingdom increased 9% in 2021 compared to 2020, reaching 21,247 hectares, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). Simultaneously, gardens and parks increased by 8.94% compared to 2020, amounting to 15,514 hectares. This is in line with the government’s Green Saudi Arabia and Green Middle East initiatives.

“Terrestrial reserves area amounted to 324,151 square kilometres (sqkm) in 2021, covering 16.21% of the total area of Saudi Arabia. This expansion came after the government allocated seven royal reserves in 2018 and five reserves in AlUla in 2019. Marine reserves area, on the other hand, reached 12,216 sq km in 2021,” GASTAT confirmed.

The country is also boosting energy and water eciency. Ocial data show 419 million cubic metres of treated water was reused in 2021, representing a 23.60% increase compared to 2020. The share of reused treated water in 2021 lies at 22.35% of the total treated water.

Indeed, close to 133 wastewater treatment plants were deployed in 2021, which represents an increase of 14.66% as against 2020. With 26plants, Riyadh showed the highest number of wastewater treatment facilities among all the regions in Saudi, followed by Aseer (with 20 plants), and the Eastern Region (with 19 plants).

The amount of recycled industrial waste in Jubail and Yanbu reached 340,000 tonnes in 2021, which grew by 23.46% over 2020, representing 61.58% of the total collected industrial waste in the areas.

                  

Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) is also a key pillar of Saudi Arabia’s mining sector.

“More than ever, we need strong, focused, and sustained international collaboration to address the collective challenges we face, primarily the urgent need to transition to a net-zero future,” said Bandar Alkhorayef, Saudi Arabia’s minister of industry and mineral resources during an event in Sydney, Australia.

The minister emphasised that the world needed to rise to this challenge and substantially ramp up investments and innovation in mineral and metal technology, so as to meet the increasing global demand for minerals. He noted that geopolitical tensions, resource nationalism, weak supply chains, and a lack of investment had placed hurdles in the mining industry’s pathway to growth.

Furthermore, he pointed out that Saudi Arabia is “strategically located” at the heart of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe, with well-developed infrastructure and high domestic demand for minerals and metals.

“In Saudi Arabia, we have all the competitive advantages to become a centre of excellence in sustainable mining development and growth,” he added.

As part of a swathe of legal and regulatory reforms implemented in recent years to encourage more investment into the sector – while ensuring that sustainability is at the core of its mining eorts – the kingdom introduced its Mining Sustainability Principle, the minister said.

   

In its 2022 Sustainability Report, chemicals giant SABIC highlighted its continued eorts in driving sustainability through collaboration and innovation. The report, titled “Sustainable Growth for a Better World,” the report details the progress SABIC made in 2022 toward key commit ments, including advancing the circular economy, ensuring responsible chemicals management, and increasing ESG disclosures.

“Megatrends that have been unfolding slowly are now emerging as forces of change, aecting our industry in new ways. At SABIC, our future depends on our ability to meet the needs of tomorrow’s customers and communities,” said Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, SABIC CEO.

SABIC has continued to lower its intensity-based performance in 2022, although its absolute emissions increased by 2% compared to 2021, as a rise in production led to a proportional increase in Scope 1 emissions, according to the report

SABIC is poised to achieve significant progress in endeavours related to energy eciency, renewable energy adoption, initial electrification, and CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation, and storage) in the forthcoming years. These strategic initiatives are instrumental in keeping the company aligned with its interim objective of achieving a substantial 20% reduction in absolute greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1 and 2) by the year 2030.

A noteworthy example of this commitment is exemplified by SABIC's polycarbonate plant located in Cartagena, Spain. This facility is slated to achieve a historic milestone by becoming the world's first large-scale chemical plant to operate entirely on 100% renewable energy by 2024. This transformation is projected to result in a remarkable reduction of up to 70,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions.