By : Islam Tawfik
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is emerging as one of the world’s most important growth regions for clean industry financing, with 84 announced projects representing $642 billion in potential investment across clean fuels, fertilisers, steel, and aluminum. The MENA region’s grown comes as clean industry plants globally are securing finance at the fastest pace on record, with, 19 projects worth $43 billion reachingfinal investment decision in the past six months alone, double the pace of a year earlier.
The scale of the MENA region’s opportunity is highlighted in a new report from Mission Possible Partnership, Clean Industry Rising: the foundation of resilient value chains, supported by the Industrial Transition Accelerator and published alongside the latest Global Project Tracker.
The report underscores how clean industrial production is moving towards a significant acceleration in the shift to decarbonised industrial production across some of the world’s most energy-intensive sectors, including aviation and shipping fuels, fertilisers, steel and aluminium. This shift arrives at a critical moment, when energy shocks, commodity market
volatility and trade fragmentation are reinforcing the need for more resilient industrial systems.
Faustine Delasalle, CEO of Mission Possible Partnership and Executive Director of the Industrial Transition Accelerator, said: “Clean industry is rising because the world has changed. In an increasingly fragmented and unstable environment, fossil-fuel dependence has shown time and again to mean exposure to price shocks, supply disruption, and economic crises, while continuing to fuel the climate crisis and its own compounding impacts. Countries that build cleaner industrial systems can gain greater control over the essentials of their economies: energy, food, materials, and industrial goods that underpin every dimension of people’s lives.”
A clean energy pipeline spanning the MENA region Across the region, countries are playing distinct roles in advancing the clean industry pipeline.
Egypt isthe region's largest market by project count, ranking tenth globally, with 25 projects and $108.5 billion in potential investment spread across the Suez Canal corridor, the Gulf of Suez coast and Damietta.
Omanhas moved furthest toward delivery: 19 projects represent a $271 billion pipeline, and a green ammonia facility at Duqm has already reached final investment
decision.
● In Saudi Arabia, the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project, led by NEOM, Air Products and ACWA Power, is the region's most visible milestone: a 1.2 million-tonne-per-year clean ammonia development that has drawn international capital and technology into the Kingdom.
● The UAE's projectsin Fujairah and Abu Dhabi targeting sustainable aviation fuel production sit at the doorstep of two of the world's most connected aviation hubs.
Clean fuels as an early regional advantage Clean fuels across aviation and shipping are emerging as one of the clearest near-term opportunities for the region.
Nine methanol plants, four sustainable aviation fuel facilities and three clean ammonia projects reached final investment decision in six months, reflecting rising demand for cleaner fuels and the commercial confidence of developers and financiers to back them.
The MENA region brings distinct advantages to this moment. The UAE and Saudi Arabia host active sustainable aviation fuel(SAF) development projects, and serve two of the world's most connected aviation markets, with their ability to serve both export markets and local customers.
Trade partnerships underpin more resilient and competitive industrial supply chains Clean trade partnerships between countries with complementary strengths, combining renewables capacity, industrial demand, technology and capital, offer what conventional supply chains cannot: insulation from shocks and a route into the next generation of industrial markets.
In the Middle East, Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone is attracting clean ammonia
developers from Europe, Asia and North America, targeting export routes to established industrial markets on both sides of the canal. In Saudi Arabia, the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project draws together international technology partners, sovereign capital and committed off-takers – a model that points to how the region can become a competitive exporter of clean industrial commodities at scale.
The economic opportunity extends well beyond individual plants. Everyproject that reaches final investment decision can unlock demand across a wider value chain – from clean power production and clean technology provision to infrastructure and plant construction,
logistics and downstream manufacturing. For the MENA region, the opportunity spans project development, clean technology procurement, logistics infrastructure and downstream manufacturing: sectors where regional firms can compete for long-term roles in emerging clean supply chains.
James Schofield, Deputy Director, ITA, said:“We are seeing double the pace of final investment decisions globally.
Most of these are in China, and evidence points to the continued rise of the new industrial sunbelt. We can also see that supportive policy can help investment into clean industry - particularly SAF - and that clean trade partnerships between countries with complementary strengths could offer greater resilience, competitiveness, and industrial growth.”
Despite the current growth, further acceleration is not yet guaranteed.The report identifies three priorities for turning today’s momentum into a broader industrial shift: creating stronger markets for clean products, building win-win trade and commercial partnerships that connect clean technology leaders, low-cost clean energy regions with major industrial demand centres, and mobilising public and private finance to reduce the risk of investing in
early projects.
