UAE's Vision for Renewables and a Greener Future

The UAE has set out a clear vision to become the country with the smallest ecological footprint and carbon footprint in the world by 2050. Dubai, the commercial hub of the country is also setting itself up to become the leader of the world’s future green economy. This entails the country transitioning away from fossil-fuels, and building out renewable energy infrastructure that will provide 100% of the power this growing country needs to operate by 2050. The country is also setting itself up to become one of the world’s largest producers of green and blue hydrogen, advancing a low-carbon hydrogen economy. As the country and its Emirates moves towards its net-zero ambitions by 2050, renewables will play a significant role.

A Desert Country Committed to a Greener Future

A History of Environmental Protection

From the early foundational years of the United Arab Emirates, the environment has been top of mind for the first leaders of the country. The late founding father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan had an innate devotion to building a land that was everlastingly good for all its people and its environment.

Many Emiratis grew up hearing stories of the late Sheikh Zayed performing ablution, a ceremonial washing of one’s body before prayer, near a tree so that the tree could benefit from the water. Sheikh Zayed had revised local water ownership rights in the early years, to ensure all residents had equal access to water, and worked on ensuring the minimization of water waste in the nation. He also established the High Environmental Council in 1975, banned hunting in 1980 to protect gazelles, founded a falcon hospital, and saved the Arabian Oryx from going extinct by establishing a breeding program on Sir Bani Yas. For these and many other efforts, Sheikh Zayed was the first head of state to receive the Golden Panda Award, World Wildlife Fund’s highest conservation award in 1997. Sheikh Zayed made his position clear when he said, “The preservation of our planet is not only a moral duty, but also an economic necessity.”

Largest Ecological Footprint in the World

The flurry of recent activity and coordinated strategies launched around tackling climate change, achieving net zero, ramping up renewable energy generation and pushing the sustainability agenda to the front of policy makers across the UAE might have you believing that the UAE has always been a star player in the global sustainability arena.

But this wasn’t always the case. The UAE’s ambitions on becoming a leading net zero player and leading green economy was born out of necessity. Achieving this is no small feat for any country, but is particularly challenging for a country such as the UAE. And what the country is setting out to do is no small feat.

The country is built in one of the hottest, most arid climates in the world. The air conditioning required in buildings and homes in this part of the world is so energy intensive, that the UAE consistently has one of the top 10 energy consumption rates per capita in the world, similar to the energy footprint of Singapore (roughly 150,000  kWh per person). The UAE’s diversified industrial sectors also play a role, as electro-intensive industries such as aluminum and steel manufacturing and processing, cement production and the like are major players in the country’s economy. Today, the UAE also has one of the highest water consumption rates in the world, at approximately 500 liters per day, which is 50% above the world average. Both of these metrics, and the country’s carbon footprint contribute significantly to the country’s ecological footprint calculations; and this is why eighteen years ago, the UAE and Dubai was ranked to have the largest ecological footprints of any country or city in the world.

Ecological footprints attempt to quantify the impact that human activities are having on the environment in a given place or country; it measures the natural resources humans are consuming in the environment through activities such as forestry, farming, fishing, mining, manufacturing and construction.

From the Back of the Pack

So when the UAE sadly took the top spot on the 2006 Global Ecological Footprint Ranking Report, how did the country respond? They contacted the Global Footprint Network to understand the metrics and methodology used to assess countries’ ecological footprints, and the UAE government worked diligently to improve its position on the global ranking year after year. In 2007, the UAE government launched the Al Basma Al Beeiya (the ecological footprint) initiative, collaborating across the Ministry of Environment and Water, the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology, Emirates Wildlife Society-World Wildlife Fund and the Global Footprint Network to work towards ensuring a sustainable future by measuring and understanding the impact of our ways of living on planet earth.

The launch of the Al Basma Al Beeiya initiative set the UAE on course to becoming the third country in the world at the time, just after Switzerland and Japan, to conduct in-depth research on its ecological footprint to address issues by developing effective policies which would help the country work towards alleviating detrimental consumption patterns. One such policy was an energy efficiency lighting regulation launched in October 2013, which reduced the energy consumption of the country by up to 500 megawatts per year, which is equivalent to not using an average gas power station for six months.

Another key finding of the Al Basma Al Beeiya initiative was that UAE households were the main contributor (57%) to the UAE’s ecological footprint, followed by business and industry (30%) and finally government (12%). These findings were applied in the development of a sustainable lifestyles campaign where households were educated on ways to reduce their energy and water consumption. One of the many initiatives that came out of the project included the country establishing a centralized statistics bureau to provide up-to-date high quality statistical data and information.

The Latest Rankings

The UAE has significantly improved its ecological footprint, but it still sits in the Top 10 countries with the largest ecological footprints per capita. In 2022, the United Arab Emirates ranked fifth in the world, behind Qatar (14.3 global hectares), Luxembourg (13.0), Cook Islands (8.3), Bahrain (8.2), and the United States (8.1) for the largest ecological footprints per capita. In fact, the UAE’s ecological footprint was on par with that of the USA and Canada.

From Largest to Smallest Footprint by 2050

The United Arab Emirates has laid out several sustainable development plans, strategies and initiatives to shift trajectories with an ambitious goal to achieve the smallest ecological footprint in the world by 2050. To realize this vision, both the Federal government and Emirate-level government entities are working in tandem to enact a series of innovative strategies, focusing on sustainable urban development, renewable energy adoption, and extensive green initiatives. These green ambitions not only reflect the UAE’s commitment to environmental stewardship but also set a precedent for sustainable development in urban centers worldwide. Here are just a few of the strategies launched in recent years.

Federal UAE Strategy	Description and Key Targets
The UAE’s Net Zero 2050 Strategy	The UAE Net Zero 2050 Strategy employs over 25 programmes spanning six key sectors across the country; namely, power, industry, transport, buildings, waste, and agriculture. The strategy is designed to both stimulate the economic and societal advancement by leading the transition to net zero emissions. Ultimately, the UAE launched the National Net Zero by 2050 Pathway in 2022, which defines the country’s climate ambition with an absolute emission reduction target of 18% compared to the UAE’s updated second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement by 2030, 60% by 2040, and 100% by 2050, compared to 2019 figures. Key Targets • Create 200,000 job opportunities across solar, battery and hydrogen sub-sectors • Contribute around 3-5% to the national GDP • Reduce emissions from the power and water sector to zero by 2050 • Increase clean energy contribution to UAE’s energy mix, winding down the use of clean coal by 2030
UAE (Clean) Energy Strategy 2050	Launched in 2017, the UAE Energy Strategy 2050 is the first unified energy strategy in the UAE  to balance the supply and demand with environmental obligations, while creating a conducive environment for economic growth. Key Targets • Triple the contribution of renewable energy to the national energy mix by 2030 • Install 19.8 GW of clean energy capacity by 2030 • Invest AED 150-200 billion into renewable energy infrastructure by 2030 • Achieve AED 100 billion in financial savings with the renewable energy transition • Reduce emissions from the energy and water sectors to zero by 2050 • Achieve 0.27 kg CO2/kWh in grid emission factor by 2030 (lower than the global average) • Create 50,000 new green jobs by 2030
UAE Wind Program	The UAE Wind Program is a 103.5 MW clean energy project with the goal of integrating cost-effective, large-scale utility wind power into the UAE’s electricity grid. The project is expected to power more than 23,000 UAE homes annually, and reduce 120,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
National Hydrogen Strategy 2050	The National Hydrogen Strategy 2050 aims to support the decarbonization of local industries, by becoming one of the largest producers of low-carbon hydrogen in the world by 2031. Key Targets: • Produce 1.4 million tonnes per annum of low-carbon hydrogen, by 2031 (and 14.9 mtpa by 2050) • To stimulate and develop a low-carbon hydrogen supply chain in the UAE, to serve as a low-carbon fuel source, that is expected to achieve 25% emissions reduction by 2031, and 100% reduction by 2050 in hard-to-abate sectors. • Become a major global exporter of low-carbon hydrogen • Create 184,000 new jobs by 2031, and 500,000 new jobs by 2050
National Food Security Strategy 2051	The National Strategy for Food Security aims to make the UAE the world’s best in the Global Food Security Index by 2051. It generally aims to develop a comprehensive national system based on enabling sustainable food production through the use of modern technologies, enhance local production, develop international partnerships to diversify food sources, and facilitate global food trade. The UAE also aims to achieve zero hunger around the world, by ensuring access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round throughout the world.
UAE Water Security Strategy 2036	The UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 aims to ensure sustainable access to water during both normal and emergency conditions. Key Targets: • Reduce total demand for water resources by 21% (reducing average consumption per capita by half) • Increase water productivity index to US $110 per cubic meter • Reduce water scarcity index by three degrees • Increase reuse of treated water to 95% • Increase national water storage capacity up to two days under normal conditions, up to 16 days in emergencies, and enough supply water for more than 45 days in extreme emergencies. • Achieve savings of AED 74 billion and reduce CO2 emissions associated with desalination by 100 million metric tons.
National Water & Energy Demand Management	The UAE Wind Program is a 103.5 MW clean energy project with the goal of integrating cost-effective, large-scale utility wind power into the UAE’s electricity grid. The project is expected to power more than 23,000 UAE homes annually, and reduce 120,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
The UAE Green genda 2030	The UAE’s Green Agenda 2030 sets out to achieve sustainable development in the UAE. Key Targets: • Increase UAE’s GDP by 4-5% • Increase exports by 24-25 billion • Reduce the country’s emissions to less than 100 kWh
National Air Quality Agenda 2031	The National Air Quality Agenda 2031 provides a general framework for government and private sectors to align and maintain air quality and reduce air pollution. Key Targets: • Reach 35microgram/m3 annual average concentration of PM2.5 in residential areas by 2030 • 100% compliance with national standards for gaseous pollutants by 2040 • Achieve 90% compliance with national standar of PM2.5 by 2040

As we look across these various strategies, we see that the transition to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, and low-carbon fuel sources like hydrogen underpins the success of many of the targets set-out in these programmes. If the country achieves a substantial green energy transition, then naturally air quality is expected to improve, some pressure is removed from a demand-side management perspective, and thousands of jobs will be created as new sub-sectors such as hydrogen, clean energy, battery storage and electricity production, will stimulate the growth of the UAE economy further.

 

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