The platform that offers to transform, decarbonize, and future-proof economies UAE Climate Tech brings together over 1,500 leaders from technology giants, major industries, finance, government, civil society, and the energy sector in Abu Dhabi.
Technology has the ability to transform one of the biggest problems the world is currently facing into one of the most significant opportunities for long-term socioeconomic growth.
The world needs a massive course correction to continue making economic progress while drastically lowering emissions and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The necessity of putting what everyone agrees on outside of the COP negotiation rooms into action. Technology is the most important source of innovative solutions the world needs. Although the potential is present, the fragmented environment only slows us down.
The situation needs a comprehensive, unifying ecosystem that brings together all the important stakeholders and unifies everything. Climate technology may treble its contribution to global growth while reducing up to 25 billion tonnes of carbon emissions yearly with the appropriate policies encouraging the proper investments.
A new economic development model based on reducing emissions can be built by harnessing climate technologies while revitalising economic growth. Dr Al Jaber reiterates his proposal for the global renewable energy capacity to be tripled to 11000 GW by 2030 and then doubled again by 2040.
Renewables are one of many answers. Several thousands of cement, steel, and aluminium plants worldwide account for over 30 per cent of global emissions, and none can function solely on renewable energy. The aluminium sector is counted as one of the most energy-intensive industries. Scaling up and commercializing hydrogen is the key to making a tangible impact on the energy system.
According to World Economic Forum, manufacturing aluminium requires highly energy-intensive processes to extract alumina from bauxite and turn it into aluminium. More than 70 per cent of the energy used comes from fossil fuels, primarily to produce captive electricity to run smelters (primary aluminium) and electric induction furnaces (recycled aluminium). The aluminium sector generates about 2 per cent of all man-made emissions – aluminium is one of the most emission-intensive industrial materials today.
Applying carbon capture technologies to high-emitting businesses is a crucial enabler in the race to net zero, according to the most recent IPCC assessment. The pressure must continue for advances in battery storage, nuclear power plant expansion, and fusion energy investments.
Aggressively using the newest platform technologies, such as AI, robotics, and blockchain, is necessary to boost the effectiveness of the energies used today across all sectors. Agriculture and food systems are the largest single source of greenhouse gases, accounting for approximately one-third of all global emissions. Hence technology businesses need to concentrate on these issues.
His Excellency Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and COP28 President-Designater repeated the call for the oil and gas industry to zero out methane emissions by 2030 and align around comprehensive net zero plans by or before 2050. need to phase out emissions from all sectors, including transportation, agriculture, heavy industry, and fossil fuels, while investing in technologies to phase up all viable zero-carbon alternatives. The need to re-imagine the relationship between producers and consumers, from one based purely on supply and demand to an association, focused on co-creating the future.
"Critical that as we adopt new technologies, the global south is not left behind. Technology is essential to helping the most vulnerable communities build capacities and leapfrog into a low-carbon economic development model. Paris Agreement united governments around what the world must do to meet the climate challenge; COP28 will focus on the 'how'".
On May 15, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and COP28 President-Designate, called for collective climate action from global leaders to transform, decarbonise and future-proof economies.
Dr Al Jaber called for accelerating the development and application of technological solutions to decarbonize economies and reduce emissions by at least 43 per cent by 2030 in accordance with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report while addressing over 1500 global policymakers, innovators, and industrial leaders at the UAE CLIMATE TECH conference in Abu Dhabi.
However, in his remarks, he emphasised the urgent need for a responsible and practical energy transition, laser-focused on eliminating fossil fuel emissions while phasing up all practicable zero-carbon alternatives and ensuring the Global South is not left behind.
“The science is already telling us that we are way off track. The latest IPCC report has confirmed that the world must reduce emissions by forty-three per cent by 2030 if we are serious about keeping the ambition of 1.5 alive. At the same time, global energy demand will continue to increase because an additional half a billion people will join us on this planet by 2030.”
“If we are going to maintain economic progress while dramatically reducing emissions, we need nothing short of a major course correction. We need to translate what we agree on inside the COP negotiation rooms into practical actions in the real world. We need to find a way to hold back emissions, not progress. We need breakthrough solutions, and the single most critical source of these solutions is technology.”
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