KAUST Circular Carbon Initiative

KAUST answers the Kingdom and G20 leaders’ call to progress the circular carbon economy

WITH THE RECENT LAUNCH OF THE KAUST CIRCULAR CARBON INITIATIVE, WE WILL BUILD AN EVEN STRONGER NETWORK OF RESEARCHERS AT ALL CAREER STAGES, TO THOROUGHLY TEST AND OPTIMISE OUR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ADVANCES, AND FULLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE ONGOING EFFORTS OF THE KINGDOM TO IMPLEMENT THE CIRCULAR CARBON ECONOMY NATIONAL PROGRAM.

In December 2020, KAUST launched a new initiative to bring the different strands of the university’s circular carbon economy (CCE) research under one unified action. The ultimate goal of the initiative, named the KAUST Circular Carbon Initiative (CCI), is to support the creation of a national platform that promotes, adopts and rapidly deploys CCE technological solutions.

Since KAUST’s inception in 2009, research into CCE technologies has been an integral part of the university’s portfolio, including CO2 capture, nature-based solutions, renewable energy and CO2 utilization. With the launch of the KAUST CCI, the university aims to create a strong and well-informed network of researchers that will proactively support Saudi Arabia’s growing leadership in this critical platform.

The CCE is an economic model designed to manage and mitigate the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere and is an important new approach to addressing climate change. In October 2019, Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced Saudi Arabia’s support of the CCE. The CCE paradigm expands upon the concept of the circular economy and its three Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle – to include an essential fourth R: “Remove”.

While the CCE affirms the need for technologies that reduce carbon emissions, it also calls for technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere and then store or reuse it. Once carbon is captured, it can be stored underground in depleted oil and gas reservoirs and aquifers, or reused as a chemical feedstock for e-fuels and other materials. Separately, the CCE encourages carbon recycling through the use of nature-based solutions focused on preserving and extending mangrove forests and sea grass meadows and the repopulation of large marine animals.

The paradigm is based on two important ideas. First, that the development and implementation of renewable energy technologies alone is insufficient to meet global climate goals. Second, that economies are likely to continue to use petrochemicals as sources of energy and material feedstock through-

MINISTRY OF ENERGY

“KAUST has always been a pioneer on the pathway to innovation, and today it takes another big step along the road that will benefit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This initiative is well-timed.”

HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy

KAUST CCI launch event, December 1, 2020

out the 21st century. One of the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change is to achieve a balance between carbon sources and sinks by 2050 to ensure net zero emissions globally. Achieving this balance is necessary to limit the increase in global temperatures to within 2°C of pre-industrial levels, or 1.5°C if possible.

The Paris Agreement set these temperature targets to prevent the most devastating effects of climate change. However, given the current trends, global temperatures are expected to rise by more than the targets, possibly by as much as 3°C. Enabling carbon capture, utilization and storage is essential to the strategies that must be developed to reach the Paris Agreement’s target. The fourth R is the key to being able to reverse this overshoot.

Through its G20 presidency, Saudi Arabia has successfully inaugurated a global platform for the CCE. The G20 Riyadh Summit Leaders’ Declaration of November 22, 2020 endorsed this CCE platform as a technology agnostic, pragmatic and outcome-focused approach to stabilising the climate while also protecting the global need for economic growth.