- The gas credit scheme is to encourage decarbonisation through incentivisation.
- The program is open to the public, private sectors and subsidiaries of foreign firms.
Saudi Arabia will kick off a greenhouse gas credit scheme early next year. According to the scheme’s website, the program will allow companies to offset their emissions by buying credits from projects that voluntarily cut or remove greenhouse gas emissions.
Saudi Arabia’s Greenhouse Gas Crediting and Offsetting Mechanism (GCOM), launched at the United Nations MENA Climate Week in Riyadh, aims “to incentivise the deployment of emission reduction and removal of activities at scale to support and enable climate-related national strategies, policies, and programs.” Also, GCOM’s website said Participation in the scheme, which aligns with Article 6 of the Paris climate agreement, is voluntary, project-based, and covers greenhouse gas and non-greenhouse gas “metrics across all sectors.” It is open to the public and private sectors as well as subsidiaries of foreign firms.
A year ago, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, said it would set up the Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company (RVCMC) with Saudi’s Tadawul Group, the Riyadh-based Saudi Exchange operator. In June, some 16 Saudi firms, including oil giant Aramco and the Saudi Electricity Company, bought more than 2.2 million tons of carbon credit that auction organiser RVCMC said were certified and come from projects that avoid emissions by using sustainable technologies or removing carbon from the atmosphere.