Abu Dhabi's economic growth: how ADDED is building a diversifying and sustainable future
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23 JUL 2024
Today, Abu Dhabi is undergoing an economic transformation, with the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) driving forward a vision that will future-proof the Emirate for generations to come. Charting a course toward a more sustainable future, Abu Dhabi is leveraging its advanced infrastructure and seamless synergy between government entities and the private sector. ADDED is relentlessly working to enhance economic diversification and build sustainable growth in a way that ensures Abu Dhabi’s economy benefits all who live and work across the Emirate.
Abu Dhabi’s visionary leadership has long acknowledged the need to diversify its economy, shift to a knowledge-based one, and build a truly sustainable future. The Emirate’s multi-faceted approach is nurturing key growth sectors, investing in emerging tools and technologies and fostering innovation across the entire economic ecosystem.
A diversified economy and renewable energy
Renewable energy is a critical component of a sustainable future and one of ADDED’s key areas of focus. ADDED supports research and development in this field, attracting investments and encouraging the growth of clean energy companies. Similarly, it recognizes the importance of advanced technologies as a driver of economic growth. By fostering a tech-friendly ecosystem, ADDED is attracting and retaining skilled professionals, positioning Abu Dhabi as a hub for innovation.
ADDED has collaborated with several local and international partners to extend the Emirate’s sustainability efforts further. This significant shift toward a non-oil economy is the key contributor to the Emirate’s economy, and today the non-oil sectors comprise almost 54% of Abu Dhabi’s GDP.
A circular economy
At the heart of ADDED's sustainability strategy lies the circular economy concept, which it has introduced through a comprehensive framework for the industrial sector. This framework will significantly reduce industrial waste and promote responsible resource utilization. The industrial circular economy policy framework sets ambitious targets, including a 50% reduction in industrial process waste, equivalent to at least 40,000 tonnes annually. It will encompass key sectors, ensuring 100% compliance by 2030, with the plastic manufacturing sector achieving 100% compliance by 2025. This transition benefits the environment and opens avenues for cost reduction and enhanced efficiency within businesses.
A vibrant SME scene
To ensure a balanced, inclusive and sustainable business ecosystem, ADDED fosters an entrepreneurial environment that enables the development of innovative solutions particularly those focused on environmental sustainability and social impact. This is achieved through incubators and accelerators that provide support and resources to startups in strategic sectors, while prioritizing those that address environmental challenges, promote resource efficiency and contribute to the Emirate’s circular economy. SMEs comprise over 90% of businesses in Abu Dhabi, employing more than 46% of the workforce and contributing more than 42% to Abu Dhabi’s non-oil GDP, which further underscores the Emirate’s nurturing business environment and strong support for SMEs.
Smart and sustainable transportation
Led by ADDED, Abu Dhabi has been heavily involved in transforming the transportation sector by adding smarter and more sustainable means of transportation. In Q2 2024, ADDED announced investment opportunities worth AED11 billion in transportation industries, especially after the launch of the Smart and Autonomous Vehicle Industry (SAVI) cluster in 2023.
It has also inked several agreements to boost the manufacturing and assembly of electric commercial vehicles (ECVs) in Abu Dhabi and enhance innovation within the Emirate’s automotive, mobility and transportation sectors. ADDED is leveraging the benefits of public-private partnerships to deliver future-proofed infrastructure, renewable energy projects and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
Building a Sustainable Future
Abu Dhabi's economic transformation is a work in progress, but the commitment to sustainability is evident in ADDED's initiatives. It lays the groundwork for a prosperous and environmentally responsible future for the Emirate by promoting diversification, innovation, and a circular economy.
Abu Dhabi has acknowledged that the transition to a sustainable economy requires a skilled and adaptable workforce. This is where the Golden Visa program plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining top-tier professionals and sustainability thought leaders from around the world. This visa ensures that the brightest minds are contributing to the Emirate's vision for a greener and more sustainable future, particularly those with expertise in clean technologies, renewable energy and environmental sciences.
These experts bring with them the skills, knowledge and innovative thinking necessary to drive forward Abu Dhabi's sustainability goals, making the Golden Visa an integral part of the Emirate’s transformative journey toward a sustainable future.
As ADDED continues its efforts, Abu Dhabi further cements its position as a regional and global leader, demonstrating that economic success and environmental responsibility can go together.
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04 SEP 2024
Cooling our world is warming our planet. Here’s how we can turn down the heat.
As global temperatures climb, we are ramping up our use of air conditioning. The trouble is, the machines cooling our spaces are significant contributors to global warming. The UAE is rising to the challenge, combining ancient wisdom with avant-garde thinking.
Summer 2024 has brought unprecedented global heat, and new records are being set as the mercury rises. As more of us rely on air conditioning to help keep our homes, offices and public spaces comfortable, our contribution to global warming is rising, too: air conditioning causes around 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Enter sustainable cooling. The UN and the International Energy Agency estimate that climate-friendly cooling could help us avoid up to 460 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the next four decades. That’s equivalent to more than ten times India’s current annual GHG emissions.
Cooling our lives without warming our planet
Sustainable cooling encompasses a variety of measures we can take right now to help limit the impact of growing global demand for space cooling. These include improving the efficiency of existing cooling systems, innovation to develop more sustainable cooling technologies and measures that lower ambient temperatures in buildings and urban environments.
Crucially, our response to this challenge must be twofold: as well as upgrading and reimagining the infrastructure which enables today’s cooling systems, we have an opportunity to reduce the need for cooling by designing and building cooler environments in the first place.
Reimagining age-old techniques
The Middle East can draw on a long tradition of ‘passive’ architecture and design techniques which can significantly reduce heat. Rather than fighting the elements by deploying elaborate technologies to counter sweltering temperatures with artificial cold, this approach takes advantage of local conditions. The aim is to work in harmony with the existing environment to reduce the temperature of buildings, without the need for power. In the UAE, techniques include shading devices, double glazing and positioning buildings to channel natural ventilation. Buildings can also be designed with higher thermal mass, so they self-regulate by absorbing daytime heat and releasing it at night. Outside, green roofing, evaporative cooling using water features, and the application of light color coatings have all stood the test of time - and the elements.
In Abu Dhabi, for instance, traditional techniques are being reimagined for today’s needs. The sustainable urban community of Masdar City boasts a modern spin on an ancient wind tower or barjeel, which captures the prevailing wind, channeling it down past cooling mist jets into a central courtyard below. The structure, which designers say can reduce the temperature by 5 degrees celsius at street level, is built with metallic, open sides, to help visitors understand the passive design. Just a few steps away, this time-honored Middle Eastern technique also helps keep Siemens employees cool at the tech company’s innovative regional headquarters.
Elsewhere in Masdar City, the striking Al Bahr Towers combine traditional mashrabiya-style shading with 21st-century technology. The towers are adorned with over 1,000 computerized hexagonal shades which can move and adjust throughout the day, providing shade when the sun is at its strongest.
Efficiency and innovation
The Middle East is also pioneering innovative ways to future-proof buildings, rolling out new approaches to sustainable cooling. Among these, Tabreed operates 89 district cooling plants across the UAE and GCC, using chilled water from centralized energy plants to cool whole neighborhoods via underground pipes. The company is also developing ground-breaking geothermal energy which currently meets 10% of Masdar City's cooling needs. Geothermal cooling, which harnesses energy from beneath the Earth’s surface, reduces energy needs by up to 70% compared with traditional air conditioners.
AI is another tool in the race to make cooling sustainable, with companies like Hyperganic combining algorithmic engineering with industrial 3D printing and engineering to iterate at scale. Partnering with Abu Dhabi-based Strata Manufacturing, Hyperganic has created heat exchangers with radically different structures that could lead to residential air conditioning units that consume 10% of the energy that a conventional device uses.
Progress is being made to reduce leakage rates from traditional air conditioning units, mainly through better design and installation practices. In the UAE, Mubadala Investment Company’s aerospace unit Strata has teamed up with European partners to develop the world’s most energy-efficient residential air-conditioning system in the Emirates.
The hunt is also on to find more climate-friendly solutions than hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), including hydrocarbon refrigerants and ammonia. In keeping with international commitments, the UAE plans to freeze the consumption and production of HFCs in 2028. When coupled with enhanced energy-efficiency measures, these can help reduce both direct emissions from refrigerant leakages and indirect emissions from the energy used to power cooling units.
Sustainable cooling on the climate agenda
As hosts of the COP28 climate conference in 2023, the UAE placed sustainable cooling firmly on the agenda. Chief among outcomes was the Global Cooling Pledge, which saw 60 countries commit to reducing the climate impact of the cooling sector. Spearheaded by the Cool Coalition, a global network dedicated to more climate-friendly cooling, the pledge aims to reduce cooling related emissions by 68% by 2050 and to increase the global average efficiency of new air conditioners by 50% by 2030 at the latest.
Described by the IEA as one of the most critical energy issues of our time, cooling is growing increasingly prominent within the climate change conversation. The shift to more sustainable cooling for our warming world is a formidable challenge. While the planet heats up, we need to ensure we’re not throwing fuel on the fire of global warming while we try to cool down.
By merging ancient wisdom with cutting-edge innovation, we can reduce our reliance on energy-intensive cooling systems and work with the planet to create cooler environments. The Middle East, with its rich history of passive cooling techniques and ambitious climate goals, is uniquely positioned to lead this shift. But only through concerted global efforts to improve cooling efficiency, develop climate-friendly alternatives and prioritize sustainable urban planning can we hope to escape this vicious cycle and ensure a habitable planet for generations to come.
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15 AUG 2024
The future of water
Covering most of the planet’s surface, water is seemingly one of the most abundant substances on earth. But today, many communities and countries are facing a usable water crisis.
While millions of people worldwide use hundreds of litres of water a day, around 3.6 billion people – almost half of humanity – survives without access to safe, clean water.
More than an inconvenience, access to clean water is essential for human health, growth, wellbeing and safety, so much so that it has been recognized as a human right. A lack of it can be devastating: 1 million people die each year from lack of access to clean water and sanitation, and every two minutes a child dies from a water-borne disease. Women and girls are particularly affected when clean water is in short supply, often tasked with hauling water over long distances for communities, taking them away from education and exposing them to violent attacks or environmental threats.
Without intervention, the next few decades could make this a reality for more and more people worldwide.
With increasing demand from water-intensive industries like agriculture, rising temperatures and shrinking water reserves, there is a real threat that there won’t be enough water for humanity’s needs. It’s a problem that has had experts ringing alarm bells since before 2017.
With access to water so critical, and the problem so pressing, why isn’t water management demanding more global attention? Is anything being done to bring it into wider conversations about sustainability? On today’s trajectory, what’s the future of water?
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The future of water as it stands
Two opposing trends paint a grim picture of the future. While global water use is set to skyrocket, global water supplies are already stressed.
To keep up with demand, experts predict that global water use will rise 20-50% as a result of human-driven climate change and overuse. So much groundwater has been pumped out of the earth that it has tilted the planet’s axis.
Heavy use of water is compounded by mismanagement: without policies, infrastructure and conservation efforts, existing water sources are being polluted, wasted or drained. Worldwide, different challenges in managing water are causing water stress for communities: from outdated infrastructure to conflict to overuse, it’s clear that alongside preserving our existing sources of water, understanding how we use what we have as a global community is just as important.
On this trajectory, developing countries will experience water insecurity over longer periods and with greater intensity, while supplies to major industries become strained. Over the next two decades, the increasing water stress will lead to a rise in related inequality, political instability, growing disease and potential sources of conflict in the most affected nations.
How can we change this trajectory?
Top priorities for cleaner, healthier water
As the global community attempts to address the challenge of building a more sustainable future, the issue of water has garnered more attention. While the subject of water has been historically absent from international sustainability efforts like the Paris Agreement, both COP27 and COP28, held in Dubai in one of the world’s most arid regions, recognized water as a priority.
As governments, institutions and communities examine their relationship with water and their future needs, there is an overall consensus that the battle for water must be fought on all fronts. As a complex issue with multiple causes, it calls for many solutions across government, education, technology and industry, all working in tandem.
Individuals – from ordinary households to decision makers at the helm of major corporations – must gain a better understanding of the impact of water usage and consumption. Awareness campaigns like the USA’s Save Our Water can help change behavior and influence change at the individual level. At the national level, governments can leverage policy to support better understanding and use of water management.
Backed by funding, recent innovations in water management technology have the potential to help restore and manage water. Emerging AI and big data technologies, in particular, hold much promise. A pilot project in the Ramotswa Aquifer between South Africa and Botswana, for example, is harnessing AI to analyze water levels in the drought-prone area, helping identify patterns and inform water management decisions. AI-assisted geospatial analysis is also helping smallholders in Ethiopia to identify shallow well locations, something that promises to significantly improve crop yield and access to drinking water.
While new technologies have the potential to help solve significant challenges, prioritizing cost-effective and culturally compatible solutions remains key. Obstacles like supply chain coordination, training and distribution also need to be overcome for effective implementation. Introducing innovative financial instruments like water credits (akin to carbon credits) could incentivize investment in water-related initiatives and contribute to sustainable water management practices worldwide.
Climate Adaptation and Mitigation
The issue of water is inextricably tied to the wider climate emergency. Meeting the Paris goals by reducing carbon emissions, implementing overall climate mitigation measures and adapting to today’s changes are a key part of addressing the water crisis and building safeguards for the future.
Climate adaptation measures can be integrated into water systems and infrastructure and are essential for building resilience to climate change-induced water scarcity and extreme weather events. This involves implementing strategies such as rainwater harvesting, enhancing water storage capacity, and improving flood management systems to mitigate the impacts of climate change and ensure reliable access to water.
More broadly, general climate mitigation efforts are fundamental for addressing the underlying causes of the global water crisis. By mitigating climate change, we can help stabilize weather patterns, reduce the intensity of droughts and floods, and safeguard water resources for future generations.
Water is a critical resource, and its future is in our hands. To help people access water today and ensure water security for tomorrow, the global community must recognize, invest and mobilize to create better water management practices and safeguard the precious water we have remaining. The task is complex, but vital. We must come together to solve the problems we face for a greener, more sustainable future.
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