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2022-12-01

UAE’s Climate Vision

The UAE President’s speech at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, was explicit and direct. It united and placed everyone before their responsibilities. This was part of the UAE’s positive spirit and awareness of the sensitivity of the current historical moment, which calls for a great deal of wisdom and prudence.

Therefore, His Highness’s speech sounded the alarm bell to alert everyone that “the future of the coming generations depends on the decisions, actions and steps we take today.”

It is a source of pride that His Highness’ speech stemmed from a great Emirati legacy in the field of environment.

The UAE paid early attention to environmental issues from the time of the founding leader, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God rest his soul, who placed the environment at the forefront of his priorities by virtue of his instinct and awareness of the importance of preserving the environment from pollution and other threats.

The UAE joined environmental work only six months after the founding of the Union State on December 2, 1971, with a high-level delegation in the first United Nations Conference on Environment. In 1975, the first national law in the region aimed at protecting the environment was issued.

This was followed by a series of positions that demonstrated a firm conviction in the importance of the environment: the UAE was the first regional country to announce a strategic initiative to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and the first Middle Eastern country to sign the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. The country also launched the region’s first green hydrogen industrial project in May 2021. It also worked to increase blue hydrogen production with the aim of diversifying the energy mix. It benefited from peaceful nuclear energy through the Barakah plant project and also relied on diversification of solar energy by building Al Dhafra Solar Photovoltaic Plant, the largest solar energy production plant in the world with a capacity of up to 2 gigawatts of electricity.

The country’s efforts went beyond the national border to cooperate with friendly and brotherly countries. It signed a strategic partnership with the U.S. to invest US$100 billion in producing 100 gigawatts of clean energy by 2035.

On November 8, the UAE signed an agreement with Egypt to establish one of the largest wind energy projects in Egypt and the world, with a capacity of 10 gigawatts. This was on the sidelines of the 27th edition of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), which was hosted in Sharm El-Sheikh. This project contributes to the consolidation of UAE-based Masdar’s leading global position in the field of renewable energy.

The UAE’s hosting of COP28 in 2023 will be a valuable opportunity to give international efforts in the field of climate change a great impetus based on the country’s position in the global energy sector. Furthermore, the UAE’s position as a global hub and a major supplier of energy is ever-increasing in importance. All of this will consolidate the country’s global presence in environmental sustainability. This is reinforced by the UAE’s initiative to evaluate the implementation of the Paris Agreement, which qualifies it to lead international action to establish an ecosystem that leads to taking serious steps in protecting the environment.

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