UAE’s focus on sustainability led to COP28 hosting, Dr Al Jaber tells ADSW Talks

The UAE leadership’s early focus on sustainable development set it on a progressive path for climate action that contributed to its selection as host for the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in 2023, Masdar’s Chairman told ADSW Talks.

“His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates, wanted to build on his father’s legacy of sustainable development,” Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, UAE Special Envoy for Climate, and Chairman of Masdar, said on the latest edition of the web series. “And long before anyone in this region saw a future in renewables, His Highness saw renewables and sustainable development as the future.”

Dr Al Jaber, who has played a key role at over ten COPs, including the Paris COP21 in 2015, said the UAE recognized that sustainability was about progress and innovation. “For us, sustainable development is about never settling for the now, it is always about the next, about building on previous breakthroughs building new partnerships, staying one step ahead, never hitting the pause button because next never stops,” he said.

The UAE is ready now to take its focus on ambitious and progressive sustainable development into its role as host of COP28, to ensure its success and impact.

“This is the mindset that makes us optimistic about hosting COP28, where we will convene all stakeholders to drive transformational progress across mitigation, adaptation, climate finance, loss and damage. The UAE has been built on the principle of partnership and we will apply this to COP28 to make sure it is a COP for action and a COP for all,” Dr Al Jaber said.

The ADSW Talks series hosts influential figures from across the sustainability sector to share their perspectives on the most pressing sustainability challenges facing the world and the collective willpower and solutions needed to build a more sustainable future for all.