Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy revealed on Monday the details of its new brand identity, which symbolizes the "Pursuit of the Future", at a time when the industry is witnessing strategic transformations as a result of local and international trends. The new brand identity arises from the principles of transparency, sustainability, cooperation, and inclusiveness, to achieve the goals of Vision 2030. The new logo is circular in shape, representing the globe and expressing the integration, interdependence, and harmony of all the various energy sectors that come together as a principal driver of development, to strengthen the national and international economy. These include conventional and renewable energy, and later on nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. In the middle of the logo is a map of Saudi Arabia, the beating heart providing the world with energy from its central geographic location, and the long-trusted source of supply and stability to the global oil markets. Four colors fuse together in the new logo. In addition to green, which is drawn from the color of the Saudi flag to represent sustainability and prosperity, the colors dark blue, light blue, and gold are blended to form a luminous halo symbolizing the various sources of energy. In the center of the circle, there is a map of the Kingdom and its emblem of the two crossed swords and a palm tree, which is symbolic of strength and growth. To the left of the shape lies the name of the ministry in both Arabic and English. The components of the new identity illustrate the interdependence of the energy sectors and the innovative solutions adopted by the ministry, which serve to maximize Saudi Arabia's economic benefit from the energy sector as a whole. The ministry seeks to support economic growth through the optimal exploitation of hydrocarbons to maximize Saudi Arabia's revenue. The map's central location in the globe represents the Kingdom's leading role in the stability of the global oil markets and the security, sustainability, and reliability of the global oil supply. The Kingdom also aims to optimize its energy mix, generating electricity in the most efficient, least costly way. By 2030, liquid fuel will be substituted with gas and other renewable energy sources which will constitute about 50 percent of the electricity generation. In addition, the ministry is working on enabling the local manufacturing of the components of solar and wind energy. So within ten years, the Kingdom will become a global hub for conventional and renewable energy and for innovative hydrocarbon-based technologies. Innovation serves to support economic growth through research, development, and investment in creative solutions. Innovation is the cornerstone of the program of sustainable demand of hydrocarbons, which aims to increase the demand for hydrocarbons and find new demand sources and novel uses in the various sectors, especially through developing creative hydrocarbon-based materials that act as sustainable alternatives in many applications and industries. A number of government entities, universities, research centers, and companies are participating in this program, working on exploiting opportunities to sustain the demand for hydrocarbons with a focus on three key objectives: sustainability, development, and innovation. This aims to maximize the Kingdom's revenue from hydrocarbons, capitalizing on new technologies and artificial intelligence, to support the growth and diversification of its national economy. In addition, Saudi Arabia and the ministry have put in great efforts in protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Kingdom has endorsed the concept of the Circular Carbon Economy, which has recently been embraced by the G20 countries, in order to accelerate the rebalancing of greenhouse gas emissions and maximize the benefit of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. This is pursued through the four R's: reduce, which is about energy efficiency; reuse, which is about operational uses; recycle, which is about artificial energy; and remove, which is about carbon capture and storage, or natural processes like afforestation. The ministry is currently cooperating with the relevant entities to develop the National Program of the Circular Carbon Economy, working on more than 275 technologies and applications. This is part of the Kingdom's ambitious aspirations to become one of the world's largest exporter of clean hydrogen, including blue hydrogen from hydrocarbons and green hydrogen from renewable sources. Moreover, the ministry has placed great importance on energy efficiency, especially with the significant rise in local average energy consumption. The ministry adopted an organized and integrated approach to reining in the persistent increase in consumption through the establishment of the Saudi Energy Efficiency Center, which aims to unite and sustain all efforts to enhance production and consumption of energy in the Kingdom, in cooperation with the relevant entities. A number of initiatives have been developed and implemented since the launch of the Saudi Program for Energy Efficiency. These initiatives have focused on key sectors that represent more than 90 percent of local consumption of energy, namely utilities, industry, buildings, and transportation. They also have provided enabling solutions that contribute to the efforts taken to rationalize and increase the efficiency of energy consumption in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom's map, in the heart of the new logo, symbolizes the cooperation between the energy sector and the other sectors. Since it is both an enabled and enabling entity, the Ministry of Energy has been keen on working with others within fully integrated systems, as one team. It has involved all relevant entities, respecting each entity's mandate and ensuring consistency and complementarity. The ministry provides entities with energy sources, implements their regulations, and enables them to carry out their roles. This fosters a sense of belonging and collective responsibility for the work and its outcomes. The ministry's main focus, therefore, is to provide the needed support and assistance to enable the relevant entities to perform their tasks fully and in a high level of professionalism and transparency. — SPA
