Conference for Nature-Based Carbon Removals in Hyperarid Regions: A Case Study on Mauritania

After the successful conference held in 2023 many new interesting contacts could be established and some significant progress in the project development was made. To share these new insights and to form deeper alliances, the 2nd SAREP Conference took place on 10^th of July 2024 at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld.

Political leaders, decision makers, a wide range of experts from academia as well as experienced professionals shared their insights on the project´s economic feasibility, technical aspects of implementation as well as political cooperation. The event served as a platform for connecting with key technology partners, potential investors and other interested parties in order to identify potential modes of cooperation and to strengthen existing alliances.

The conference agenda with the respective presentation slides will be available down below.

After a short welcome address of Prof. Dr. Klaus Helling, Prof. Dr. Peter Heck gave a detailed introduction into the project vision, explaining the project rationale and the synergies between the different project elements, which make it a business case for circular economy. Furthermore, a status update was provided about the negotiations with the Mauritanian government as well as the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with them in January.

Two members of the Mauritanian steering committee on SAREP were present at the SAREP conference, Ms. Taghiya Abeiderahmane from the Ministry for Energy, Petroleum and Mines as well as Mr. Mohamed Elmoustapha Bouzouma, from the Mauritanian Office of Oceanographic Research and Fishing. Ms. Abeiderahmane highlighted in her speech the positive reception of the Mauritanian government towards the project.

Dr. Mohamed Die, the founder Agency for the Promotion of Universal Access to Basic Service in Mauritania emphasized the chances of economic development for Mauritania deriving from the project. This was followed by a speech of Mr. Abdel Aziz Dahi, a former minister and former director of the central bank of Mauritania, who highlighted the political importance of SAREP for Mauritania for international cooperation. Subsequently, Mr. Mohamed Abdoullah Ebnou described the conditions for the on-site project implementation.

Afterwards, Dr. Harald von Canstein shared his perspective that a net-zero transformation of industries worldwide is possible, but only under the utilization of the potentials of turning desert areas into productive land. Complementary to this, Prof. Dr. Hermann Lotze-Campen underlined the importance of SAREP for the global climate change mitigation efforts, as land-based carbon removal projects need to ramp up drastically in order to be able to achieve the goal of limiting global warming.

Philipp Wagner gave a concise overview of the reality of planning and implementing renewable energy projects in Mauritania. and Joachim Käufler shared details about the use of reverse osmosis seawater desalination and long distance piping in the SAREP context. This was complemented by the following speech of José Gomes, who talked about the technical feasibility and economic potentials of recovering materials and minerals from the desalination brine.

Johan Tijms and Altinus Klaassen presented a first layout of the plant irrigation system for the first reference phase of SAREP based on their experiences in various African countries. This was followed by a speech of Sebastian Ebers who elaborated on the use of irrigation tubes made by recycled car tires. Then, the water storage and soil improvement potentials of using sustainably produced soil conditioners in hyper arid areas and poor soils were highlighted by Ann-Sophie Münch.

This was followed by the presentation of Dr. Hany El Kateb, who already conducted afforestation measures under similar conditions in the Egyptian desert.

The scientific methodologies on how to properly monitor tree growth and carbon sequestration for the creation of a solid baseline for Carbon Certificates were covered in the speech of Dr. Thomas Oberthür.

Rainer Kornhaas elaborated on the potentials of growing onions as a food crop in the SAREP context based on his practical experiences in Northern Ghana. Onions seem to be a profitable commodity in this project having a positive impact on regional food security.

After that, Erik Kaiser presented a software solution that could facilitate the monitoring of carbon sequestration in SAREP significantly. Under the utilization of cutting-edge technology, a satellite-based surveillance of tree growth is possible.

Dr. George Francis showed the potentials of Jatropha and Moringa oil production in the SAREP context. Boyan Angelov presented about his experiences in growing Paulownia trees in arid regions for wood production. Afterwards, the setup of a tree shelterbelt and the selection process for tree species used in SAREP were presented by Dr. Gerhard Ohlde. Daniel Pfeifer provided valuable insights about the certification process for projects focusing on nature-based carbon removal approaches.

Dr. Felix Flesch presented about the economic feasibility of the project and provided information about the modelling assumptions as well as a sensitivity analysis.

Dr. Patrick Dorvil emphasized the eligibility of SAREP for the European Investment Bank and other Development Finance Institutions. Then, Olaf-Gerd Gemein gave an overview of other project financing instruments.

Prof. Heck opens the Conference

Speech of Thagiya Abeiderahmane, Representative of the Interministerial Committee on SAREP of the Mauritanian Government

Online Speech of Dr. Hany El Kateb, the Scientific Advisor of the President of Egypt in Agriculture

Online Speech of Prof. Dr. Hermann Lotze-Campen, Head of Research Department “Climate Resilience” of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

TV-Interview with SAT 1 Newsmagazine

The birth of the SAREP Development Initiative

This event marked an important step on the way of making the SAREP vision reality. It was the first time to share the vision of the Sahara Renaissance Project with a broader audience.

Political leaders, decision makers, a wide range of experts from academia as well as experienced professionals shared their insights on the project´s economic feasibility, technical aspects of implementation as well as political cooperation. The event served as a platform for connecting with key technology partners, potential investors and other interested parties in order to identify potential modes of cooperation and to jointly form a SAREP project development initiative.

The conference agenda with the respective presentation slides will be available down below.

After a short welcome address of Prof. Dr. Klaus Helling, Prof. Dr. Peter Heck gave a detailed introduction into the project vision, explaining the project rationale and the synergies between the different project elements, which make it a business case for circular economy.

This was followed by a speech of Mr. Abdel Aziz Dahi, a former minister and former director of the central bank of Mauritania, who highlighted the importance of SAREP for Mauritania and the region. Subsequently, Mr. Mohamed Abdoullah Ebnou described the conditions for the on-site project implementation. Then, Dr. Ahmed Shazly, a representative of SEKEM, gave a short introduction in desert agriculture and the related carbon storage potential.

The highlights of the conference were the contributions of Nany Chrougha, the Mauritanian Minister of Petroleum, Energy and Mines and Fatimetou Abdel Malick, the President of the city of Nouakchott, who both expressed their appreciation of the project and their willingness to support it from the Mauritanian side.

Dr. Bettina Hübschen, from the Hydrogen Association of Saarland, gave an insight into the decarbonization needs of the German steel industry to which the industrial complex of the project could contribute. She described the project as ambitious, but definitely feasible. Dipl.-Ing. Joachim Käufler presented about the excellent technical potentials in Mauritania for seawater desalination powered by renewable energies and the intended off-grid approach. Afterwards, Bhushan Chaudhary gave an overview of Hydrogen production potentials and possible transport and production technologies.

Then, Dr. Gerhard Ohlde listed the plant species used for the projects tree shelterbelt and described the most important cultivation aspects. This was followed by a speech of Michiel Hillen, a representative of of Tijms Trading International B.V., who elaborated on agricultural machinery and drip irrigation systems. Afterwards, Rainer Kornhaas described the technical and economic aspects of onion production in the SAREP context and Dr. George Francis gave an insightful presentation about the cultivation and utilization of Jatropha curcas. Eventually, Niklas Mitterle gave an overview of the economic aspects of the agroforestry system as a whole.

Constantin Ekiermann explained the requirements for and the demand at the international carbon markets. Complementarily, Morimi Tokuyama described current policy trends on carbon trading and different certification schemes. Katharina Schlegel further defined quality criteria that are required for creating high-quality carbon removal certificates. After that, Henning Haskamp presented about the decarbonization needs of the global shipping sector, that mainly focuses on alternative biofuels. Lastly, Mathias Brandt closed the conference with a short introduction of the carbon alliance of Rhineland Palatinate.

After the conference, new offices for SAREP were inaugurated together with the Mauritanian partners and guests and it was agreed upon the further steps that are necessary for the project implementation.

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