Agenda – Carbon Forward Middle East 2025

08.30     Registration and coffee

09.00     Welcome address

09.10     Keynote address: Carbon markets in the MENA region 

09.20     COP29 recap – what happened in Baku and what does this mean for the Middle East?

09.35     The path to net zero and the importance of putting a price on carbon 

• What is the economic case for putting a price on carbon?
• What is the extent of investment and regulation required to achieve net zero?
• What can organisations do to reliably and cost effectively accelerate their net zero transitions?

09.50     Middle East compliance carbon market developments

• Update on the region’s progress towards putting a price on carbon.
  
• What will the price of carbon be, what if a company gets it wrong?
• What opportunities does a market for carbon present? 

10.30     Coffee and networking break

11.00     Cap and trade markets around the globe – what lessons can be learnt from existing models? 

• A focus on cap and trade – how it works
• What does cap and trade get right and wrong, based on global case studies (e.g. EU, WCI, RGGI, South Korea)
• How does cap and trade’s success contrast with other market mechanisms?

11.40     Trading in the emerging MENA carbon markets 

• What infrastructure is needed and being developed for carbon markets to operate and how does it compare to mature carbon markets?
• How have the African and Middle Eastern private sector and governments instituted the necessary policies, operations, and controls? 

12.30     Prayer time

12.30    Lunch and networking

14.00     The impacts of CBAM and shipping carbon costs on the region. How are governments responding?

• What is the impact on UAE, Saudi, Oman and Egypt? What are they planning to do about it?
• Are there any regional carbon pricing initiatives?
• The importance of owning the cost of carbon in the region

14.40     Investing in carbon markets 

• As different legal and regulatory regimes attempt to define the nature of carbon credits, Middle Eastern and African governments have called for more synchronised policies to grow the voluntary market. How can efforts to minimise regulatory fragmentation facilitate project development, trading, risk management, and greater convergence with Paris Agreement and compliance carbon markets? 

15.20     Afternoon tea

15.50   Aviation carbon – CORSIA and ETSs

• Now in its voluntary phase, CORSIA will become mandatory as of 2027. Who is involved, what must they do?
  
• What is the scale of the problem and the opportunities that exist? 

16.30     CCUS and Removals – their eligibility in cap and trade markets 

• What are they?
• How much do they cost?
  
• Their applicability in cap and trade markets, now and in the future 

17.10     Close of day one