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Sustainability

Sustainability and environmental business news from the Middle East. All the important stories, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

US and China to collaborate for the success of Cop28

The United States will work with China to make the United Nations climate negotiations that begin in the UAE this week a success, Washington’s climate envoy said on Wednesday. Cooperation between the US and China, the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, is seen as crucial to securing consensus at the November 30-December 12 […]

Harvesting wheat in Sharkia, Egypt. The Opec Fund is backing food security projects in Egypt and Jordan – both big importers of grain

Opec Fund piles up financing for wheat, wind and water

The Opec Fund for International Development is on track to meet its pledges to increase grants and loans to climate-related projects, its Middle East and North Africa head has told AGBI.  Musab Alomar, the fund’s director of public sector operations for Mena, said climate financing made up 33 percent of all Opec Fund approvals in […]

Suit, Clothing, Overcoat

Politicians lack will for climate action, says ex-chancellor

Former UK chancellor Sajid Javid has suggested that Western politicians lack the will to follow through on climate commitments – because the costs of energy transition can be unpopular with voters. Speaking in the UAE just three days before the Cop28 summit begins in Dubai, Javid said the cost of living crisis had pushed climate […]

What is Cop28 UAE? The UN climate change summit begins in Dubai on Thursday Video length: 03:41

Cop28: Everything you need to know 

What is a Cop?  The Conference of the Parties is the decision-making body of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The annual Cop summits bring together the 198 parties – 197 nations plus the European Union – that signed the UN convention to combat “dangerous human interference with the climate system”. The first Cop […]

A direct-air capture plant in California. Adnoc is working on DAC and other forms of carbon storage in the UAE and abroad

Adnoc seeks to turn carbon capture into revenue stream

In the mountains of Fujairah, in the north of the UAE, an industrial site built by Adnoc sucks carbon directly from the air and converts it into rock. The CO2 is injected into the Hajar mountains, where the peridotite rock is capable of sequestering the greenhouse gas, thanks to technology developed by 44.01, an award-winning […]

Drinking water from an outdoor tap in Egypt

AI to help drive Middle East water reuse 

The International Water Management Institute is developing an AI platform to improve wastewater reuse in the Middle East and North Africa region, backed by a $1 million grant from Google.  Water scarcity is a concern in the region. Almost three-quarters (73 percent) of the 1,000 UAE respondents to a recent survey listed access to clean […]

Egypt Turkey trade container ship Suez canal

Shipping industry calls for ‘fair access’ to clean fuel

Access to clean fuel is the biggest obstacle to the global shipping industry achieving its decarbonisation goals, but the Gulf region could play a key role in addressing this, according to the head of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).  The high-emitting shipping sector has historically burned “the kind of fuel nobody else wants” – […]

Fire, Forest Fire, Outdoors

Brazil plans mega fund to conserve forests at Cop28  

Brazil plans to propose a “huge” fund to pay for the conservation of tropical forests at the United Nations Cop28 climate change summit, which begins later this month in Dubai, the country’s top climate negotiator said on Thursday. That fund, not previously reported, would be the latest in a proliferation of multilateral environmental funds. Countries […]

Drake & Scull's trading ceased in November 2018 when the company disclosed losses exceeded 75 percent of its capital

DFM to launch pilot for trading carbon credits

Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the operator of the Dubai stock exchange, will launch a pilot programme for trading carbon credits during Cop28. The pilot programme for institutional investors starts from December 4 to 8, 2023, with the offsetting period ending on January 10, 2024, the UAE state-run Wam news agency reported.  The inaugural pilot will see […]

Emirates Global Aluminium will conduct large-scale trials to test plant growth using manufactured soil

UAE aluminium refiner to test converting waste to soil

The Abu Dhabi-headquartered aluminium refiner Emirates Global Aluminium has started constructing a pilot plant to convert bauxite residue waste into soil for use in landscaping. The construction of the plant comes after five years of scientific research and development in collaboration with a consortium of global research partners, the company said in a statement on […]

Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum visits Dewa’s under-construction hydroelectric plant in Hatta

Gulf’s first hydroelectric plant to be ready in Dubai in 2025

The Gulf region’s first hydroelectric plant in Hatta is 80 percent complete and forecast to be completed by early 2025, the emirate’s utility provider said on Thursday. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) in December said that the AED1.42 billion ($387 million) plant – the first of its kind in the GCC – was planned […]

Executives from Emirates, Airbus and their partners at Wednesday's test flight in Dubai

Mena’s use of green jet fuel ‘needs incentives’ to take off

On Wednesday morning, an Emirates A380 took off from Dubai International Airport and headed down the coastline. It’s a familiar route, but this was something new: one of the Airbus’s four engines was 100 percent powered by sustainable aviation fuel. The 45-minute test flight came in a week of advances for sustainable fuels, known as […]

Adnoc and Santos are working together on net zero projects

Adnoc and Santos link up to work on net zero goals

Abu Dhabi oil major Adnoc and Australia’s Santos have signed an agreement to develop a joint global carbon management platform aimed at decarbonising markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The companies will also work together on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.  In addition, Adnoc and Santos will jointly explore the development of a carbon dioxide shipping […]

60% of GCC consumers are concerned about sustainability, but only 12% of companies have set a net zero target

Shoppers ‘will pay premium for sustainable products’

Consumers are willing to pay more to be sustainable, a study has found, even as most businesses remain far from meeting their environmental goals.  A survey of 23,000 global consumers by management consultancy Bain & Company found that 64 percent of respondents reported high levels of concern about the environment. Most said their worries had […]

DP World is using renewable energy generated by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority

DP World cuts carbon emissions by 50% in UAE

DP World cut carbon emissions from its UAE operations by nearly 50 percent in 2023 using renewable energy generated by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa). The Dubai utility provider has issued more than 200,000 international renewable energy certificates (I-RECs) to DP World so far this year, the global ports operator said in a […]