Emissions

Our emissions

We aim to meet our targets by focusing our investments on renewables and transitional, low CO₂e emitting assets, capturing viable fuel‑switch opportunities and optimising the energy efficiency of our portfolio.

CO₂ refers exclusively to carbon dioxide emissions, while CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) comprises the measurement of the impact of all the greenhouse gases, such as CO₂, methane and nitrous oxide.

We monitor, measure and report on our portfolio’s absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and the emission intensity. While our targets are based on ACWA Power’s equity share in our projects, we also report total portfolio metrics.

Scope 1 emissions covers ACWA Power’s direct Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, for example, emissions from stationary fuel combustion from our operational assets.

Scope 2 emissions covers ACWA Power’s indirect emissions, for example due to purchases of steam and electricity from the grid.

Scope 1 emissions are a function of our portfolio mix and derive mainly from our conventional power plants and thermal water plants. We are endeavouring to convert our higher emitting oil‑fired plants to gas. Additionally, our strategy calls for about three quarters of power capacity additions to be from renewable power. Under this plan, our portfolio will become 50% renewable before 2030 (up from 44.5% today).

Initiatives to reduce emissions from our assets are undertaken in two key areas: (i) reducing fuel consumption by lowering the heat rate of our thermal plants and the specific consumption at our desalination plants, and (ii) increasing renewable energy production. Our key initiatives include:

• Convert the oil‑fired Shuaibah IWPP project, which is one of our largest CO₂ emitters, to a new SWRO plant that will be powered by a mix of electricity from the grid and 53 MW of captive renewable power. This will be operational in 2025.
• We are engaging with the offtaker to convert one of our three other ACWA Power oil‑fired projects to gas. The other two are integrated with oil‑refining complexes and this makes such a conversion challenging at this stage. ACWA Power will continue to monitor all possible solutions to efficiently reduce the environmental impact of these plants.
• The Jazlah IWP water desalination project, which began operating in 2023, is powered partially by 42 MW of captive renewable power.

In conducting our emission calculations for 2023, we aligned with the most relevant internationally recognised GHG accounting and reporting standards:

• GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (WBCSD & WRI, 2004).
• GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance (WBCSD & WRI, 2015).

We excluded the Scope 1 emissions from the owned transportation fleet (mobile fuel combustion emissions). We also excluded the Scope 2 emissions from grid‑supplied electricity and district heating/cooling consumption, associated with owned offices. Such emissions are not material or significant.

In 2023, the total (Scope 1 and Scope 2) CO₂e emissions across all assets measured 64.82 M t, of which ACWA Power’s share was 27.79 M t.

Since 2021, we have calculated the CO₂e emission intensity of our gross electricity generation by including Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from electricity production. We have calculated the CO₂e intensity figure retrospectively for 2020 and 2019 using this same approach. We also calculate the CO₂e emission intensity of Reverse Osmosis (RO) water desalination as well as of thermal water desalination.

In 2023, we added 7.1 GW of renewable capacity, which is about twice our flexible generation energy additions, for the same period. As generation increases from renewable resources, our portfolio’s specific emissions intensity (t CO₂e/MWh) reduces. We have thus far achieved a 6% emission intensity reduction compared to 2020 baseline. We are on track to achieve our target of 50% emission intensity reduction by 2030 vs. 2020.

Boundary, methodology and base year

Boundary definition

The boundary is the operational assets in which ACWA Power has equity shares and which have reached full plant Commercial Operation Date (COD).

Enhanced GHG emissions accounting methodology

In our pursuit of continuous improvement, we have created an accounting methodology based on GHG Protocol for assessing our GHG emissions. This updated approach is designed to enhance the accuracy of our reporting and disclosure processes by refining the flow of operational data. With a defined boundary, it provides a more accurate representation of our GHG emissions. Previously, we reported total GHG emissions (M t CO₂e) which include Scope 1 and Scope 2 for 2020, 2021 and 2022 as 67.08, 70.53 and 74.95, respectively. As our emissions target baseline year is 2020, we have restated GHG emissions for prior years. The restated figures are now 66.10, 67.97 and 62.36. Furthermore, the 2023 GHG emissions are assured by third‑party limited assurance.

Base year

The base year for GHG emissions target is 2020.

Key data

Total portfolio basis

Please note that the emissions data below is rounded to two decimal places and therefore 0.00 signifies that the value has been rounded down and that the actual value may be, for example, 0.003 or 0.0001. A hyphen signifies zero.

Total equity basis