The UAE’s committed to supporting energy transition through domestic and foreign investment with a spending of $163 billion to diversify the country’s energy mix, a senior official has said.
Speaking during the opening session of the Global Energy & Utilities Forum, taking place live and in person at Middle East Energy 2022, Yousif Al Ali, assistant under-secretary for the electricity, water and future energy sector at the
UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, said: “With Irena forecasting that energy transition investments will have to increase by 30 per cent over planned investment to a total of $131 trillion between now and 2050, the UAE is committed to supporting this transition through domestic and foreign investment. To achieve our ambition, we plan to invest $163bn to diversify our energy mix.”
Over the next decade, the UAE will focus on driving clean electrification through solar and nuclear, implementation of transparent policies, improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon and methane emissions, and turbocharging
innovation to commercialise hydrogen technology and accompany these actions by strategies to unlock capital flows in support of clean energy transition to ensure affordability and reliability, he said.
“Hydrogen has a key role to play in energy transition and the UAE’s future energy system and will be crucial to decarbonise our industries, transportation sector, and the fossil fuel sector. The UAE is determined to lead decarbonisation and sustainability of the fossil fuel sector. Our national oil company Adnoc aims to decrease greenhouse emissions intensity by around 25pc by 2030 and expand their carbon capture capacity by almost 500pc, reinforcing Adnoc’s position as one of the least carbon-intensive producers globally,” he said.
Addressing the audience this morning during her keynote address, Aisha Al Abdooli, acting assistant undersecretary for Green Development and Climate Change, Climate Change and Environment Ministry, discussed the UAE’s roadmap to green development and net-zero goals and highlighted that the ministry is guided by various national plans and strategies such as the UAE Clean Agenda 2030, the UAE National Climate Change plan 2050 all of which support efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and support the achievement of net zero emissions by 2050.