It appears that the COP21 conference held in Paris in December has succeeded in driving its message home in UAE. At the climate conference, almost all the nations agreed to keep global warming below 2˚C and committed themselves to bringing it down to a 1.5˚C limit.
UAE has already swung into action barely two months since the clean pledge. As vowed at the Paris conference, the government has begun to implement impressive projects towards a green economy. It has pledged to increase clean energy’s share of the national energy mix from 0.2 per cent in 2014 to 24 per cent by 2021.
Dubai launched the $27.2 billion Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, which aims to provide seven per cent of the emirate’s energy from sustainable sources by 2020, raising that to 25 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2050.
It has also launched the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is the largest single-site solar energy project in the world. The solar park will produce 1,000MW by 2020 and 5,000MW by 2030 with a total investment of AED50bn. Dubai has plans to have solar panels on all rooftops in the emirate by 2030.
Climate change dominated the talks in this year’s World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in January.
Electric and hybrid cars are getting popular too. In the beginning of February, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) hit the headlines as it announced that half of the city’s taxi fleet would be hybrid cars by 2021. The move will see the population of hybrid taxi cars going up from 147 in 2015 to 4,750 in 2021 and is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 34 per cent, slashing fuel consumption by 33 per cent.
A recent study the UK-based consultancy Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) reveals that there is an increased interest in electric and hybrid modes of transport in the GCC and the UAE in particular. In order to promote electric vehicles, Dubai has already set up a network of nearly 100 charging stations across the city.
There has also been an increase in the launches of hybrid and fully electric models in the market. Most recently, Toyota launched its flagship Prius hybrid cars in the country. Three Prius models have featured on this year’s “Greenest Cars” list, compiled by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
