The key to unlocking hydrogen’s potential is to look at the challenges across the entire ecosystem. The EU could address these challenges in the context of hydrogen partnerships with key GCC producers, which the bloc’s directorate-general for energy should finalise as soon as possible. As industrial actors start looking into operationalising ex

In addition, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have unveiled several blue hydrogen projects, including a facility near the Saudi Jafurah gas field, which will go online in 2024; and an Emirati large-scale blue ammonia plant at Ruwais, starting production in 2025. Qatar has been slower to embrace green hydrogen, but it has launched a project for the world’

CO2 within peridotite rock formations. The UAE and Oman have already studied the potential of this solution in a pilot project, which found it could be cost-competitive and compatible with the GCC environment, where peridotite is abundant. The EU recognises mineralisation as a permanent sequestration method, which can be excluded from the obligatio

The EU, for its part, has a diversified portfolio of climate finance instruments and frameworks (such as the European Hydrogen Bank and several environmental, social, and governance investment models) which could serve as inspiration for the UAE’s goals on climate finance at COP28. In fact, the EU could even encourage the GCC states to see its fo

At the core of the EU’s reluctance seems to be uncertainty about how to deal with entrenched views – on all sides – over how to undertake the green transition. COP28 will therefore be a crucial catalyst to explore opportunities to bridge some of those gaps. As such, Europeans should ensure that they arrive in Dubai with a clear awareness of t