COP-28: Can UAE walk the talk on climate change action?

Naysayers have once again got their predictions wrong on Gulf countries playing host to international events.

Like neighbouring Qatar did during the FIFA World Cup in 2022, the UAE hosted with elan the UN’s Climate Change Conference summit otherwise known as COP-28 (28th Conference of Parties). The Dubai summit witnessed a climate agreement that had eluded previous summits. The appointment of an Emirati oil company chief as the COP President had earlier raised criticisms.

Held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12 – although the final deal materialised in the early hours of December 13 – COP-28 adopted the historic UAE Consensus on climate change to standing ovation from its 198 delegates.

The deal agreed on “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner … so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

It also acknowledged the need for tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency as well as lowering carbon and methane emissions. Furthermore, a landmark agreement was reached on ‘Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action.’

Right from the start of the conference, COP-28 President Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, had harped on the “need to focus on our North Star of keeping 1.5°C within reach” and his action spoke louder than words when he took everyone along – from lukewarm Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, to distraught small islands staring global warming in the face – to hammer an action plan for the planet.

UAE’s largesse

The UAE also scored in scaling up climate finance when President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan pledged $30 billion at the start of the conference while the UAE Banks Federation pledged $278 billion in sustainable financing. Sheikh Mohamed also committed $100 million to expand the Reaching the Last Mile (RLM) fund targeting Yemen and the 39 African countries endemic to river blindness and filariasis.

Commenting on the efficacy of COP-28, Nicholas Haslam, Head of Climate Change at Adam Smith International in the U.K., noted: “Against the odds as well as considerable scepticism, COP-28 and resulting Consensus succeeded in calling for a transition away from fossil fuels in this critical decade and in setting up a Loss and Damage Fund to deal with existing climate change. It’s not enough and likely won’t alter energy investment decisions at scale in the next year or two but both are key milestones that mark COP-28 as one of the most significant since Paris in 2015. Missing, however, is a firm commitment on finance from developed nations to support climate transitions and adaptation, either in the form of climate finance ODA or in the targets for MDBs to mobilise much more private investment in the Global South. The UAE Consensus would have been that much more powerful with finance thrown in.” Mr. Haslam is an adviser on climate issues to the governments of Pakistan and Nigeria.

Logistics perfection

Unlike the Sharm al Sheikh COP-27 summit in Egypt blighted by infrastructural and logistical bottlenecks, Dubai handled its 1,00,000 delegates from around the world with aplomb for 14 days as they hobnobbed in the venue’s Blue Zone earmarked for official negotiations and high-level meetings. As for the Green Zone open to the general public, visitor numbers swelled to as many as 4,00,000 despite the sombre mood and lofty mission that exhorted all to “unite, act, deliver”. Expo City’s organic farm featuring climate-resilient crops and climate-conscious cooking workshops by vegan chefs were a big draw.

In line with the spirit of COP-28, Mr. Al Jaber exhorted attendees to use the Dubai Metro to the venue. Abu Dhabi even ran numerous electric buses daily to transport delegates from the capital to Dubai, a two-hour ride. The buses, part of the Green Bus programme, will now be integrated with the emirate’s public transport fleet; they are expected to cover about 3,150 km a day and contribute to an annual reduction of more than 900 tonne carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

With its tram-like electric buses, driverless taxis and Etihad Rail, the UAE’s passenger-and-freight railway connecting the seven emirates and possibly neighbouring GCC countries by 2030, Abu Dhabi aims to establish a sustainable transport sector. Each train trip will eliminate up to 300 trucks from the roads, remove 8.2 million tonne of CO2 emissions annually from the UAE’s road transport sector, contributing to a reduction of 21% CO2 per year by 2050, Etihad Rail posted on social media platform X on December 15.

Dubai’s sustainability curve

During the summit, Dubai opened phase 3 of the world’s largest concentrated solar park project, with a planned capacity of 5000MW by 2030, as part of the emirate’s push for clean energy. The shift from an oil economy is also evident in the emirate building the first hydropower plant in the region, a green hydrogen facility, a waste-to-energy plant and having 75% hybrid or electric-powered vehicles on its roads, according to the Dubai Media Office. This is indeed remarkable for a country that the World Wildlife Fund had in 2006 called the country with the largest per capita ecological footprint. As a water-scarce nation that depends on desalinated seawater, the UAE’s energy and water consumption were among the highest.

In a departure from the glass, steel and concrete structures that are ubiquitous to the desert landscape, sustainable residential townships have sprung up in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. The first phase of Dubai Sustainable City in five million square feet with 500 villas, 11 ‘biodome’ greenhouses in the park running through the length of the property, an organic farm, rooftop solar panels, 10,000 trees, electric buggies and car-free lanes is a model town that is low on emissions and high on sustainable living. The 640-hectare Masdar City in Abu Dhabi also aims to be carbon neutral and zero waste; there are no fossil-fuelled vehicles inside and its shaded streets encourage walking while wind and photovoltaic farms around the city help the community to be energy-efficient.

Methane and carbon removal

Fossil fuel companies in the UAE are actively using carbon capture techniques to meet the country’s decarbonisation goals.

Among the exhibitors in the Energy Transition Hub at COP-28 was SLB, a global technology company that is innovating in the energy sector. The SLB pavilion showcased solutions related to carbon capture and storage, methane abatement and geothermal/geo-energy.

Explaining its climate mitigation solutions, an SLB representative noted that the company has 50 years of experience advising the geothermal power industry, with involvement in 70% of all operating projects worldwide. Geo-energy, its technology for heating and cooling buildings, can reduce operational costs by up to 40% while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90%, she added.

The solutions presented by SLB at COP-28 are aligned with the Global Decarbonization Accelerator, an initiative launched by the COP-28 Presidency Team.

The UAE had declared 2023 as the Year of Sustainability, and its organisation and commitment to COP-28 has proven that the desert nation is serious about a liveable planet for the future.