Sustainable Dubai

Dubai is a metropolitan area in the United Arab Emirates that is often regarded as one of the world’s fastest-growing cities. However, due to the obvious extreme conditions, scarcity of natural capital like food, water, and construction materials, and the uncontrolled style of expansion, fast urbanization has resulted in a slew of environmental challenges. It is for these reasons that Dubai is also taking measures to ensure sustainable development and help fight climate change in more ways than one.

With the increasing warning signs of climate change, Dubai wants to take a stand and play a role in addressing them. The country is establishing new ways of doing things by investing in clean technology and sustainable development in the UAE. And, in order to assist this new enterprise, the government is supporting all new and innovative green concepts.

You may have heard that Dubai has taken a number of initiatives to become a little more ecologically conscious city. It has progressed from the construction of a 500-kilometer cycling path to planning the world’s biggest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. The power plant will strategically be a major contribution towards sustainability that will be ideal for generating electricity for a city that enjoys sunshine all year round and will take advantage of it in the near future.

Dubai aspires to have the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050, making the construction of this CSP plant critical to the city’s long-term success. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has picked Acwa Power of Saudi Arabia and Shanghai Power of China to construct this massive addition to the city’s current solar plant, which is more than three times larger than the city’s original design. Given Dubai’s strong sun throughout the year, this is a perfect approach to create electricity for the Emirate, benefiting not only Dubai but the rest of the globe by lowering carbon emissions. This implies that the city will soon be renowned not just for having the world’s tallest structure, but also for leading the way in environmental protection and sustainable development.

Increasing dependence on renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, expanding capacity for carbon capture, usage, and storage, protecting blue carbon habitats, supporting sustainable agriculture, and adopting environmentally friendly waste management are among the UAE’s attempts to minimize emissions.

UAE Green Agenda 2015-2030:
As an overall framework for Green Economy efforts, the UAE Cabinet approved the UAE Green Agenda 2015-2030 in January 2015. Five strategic objectives make up the Green Agenda: competitive knowledge economy, social development and quality of living, environmental sustainability and controlled natural resources, clean energy and climate action, and green living and sustainable resource use. In addition to supporting green manufacturing and using alternative fuels, the Green Agenda 2030 also encourages green careers for recent graduates and raises awareness of sustainable environmental practices.
A major goal is to achieve sustainable development in the UAE, which includes clean energy, affordable food, quality education, health care, sustainable economic growth, healthy ecosystems, and resource efficiency since all these issues have become very important in the country. To steer the world toward a more sustainable and resilient future, the UAE has pledged to “leave no one behind.”

Sustainability is important for businesses, and incentives for green sectors are available.
The UAE’s government took significant and ambitious steps toward a green economy by establishing the UAE Green Growth Strategy. The UAE is taking initiatives to promote the green economy idea on a worldwide scale as part of this goal. This initiative strengthens the UAE’s environmental responsibility and position as a center for the export and re-export of green technological solutions by enabling green product production, expanding its energy sources, and improving the UAE’s experience in international energy markets as a global hub of Renewable Energy Research and Development.This shows that long-term economic growth is one of its goals.

By late 2017, an additional AED 2.4 billion (US $650 million) had been collected and was planned to be invested domestically in green businesses and green energy initiatives. Funds from this fund have been invested in projects such as Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park – Phase 4 (green energy power generation), the Dubai International Airport (energy efficiency), and Economic Zones World (JAFZA) (energy efficiency).

Cheers! Single-use plastic will no longer be acceptable!
Over the years, we’ve seen and heard of the terrible impacts single-use plastic has had on our environment across the globe. There have been cases of seabirds, fish, turtles, and marine animals that have been found with fishing gear or plastic bags in their stomachs; even land animals, such as camels, have been harmed by the consumption and entanglement in plastic in the UAE. This pollutant has caused problems in so many ways, that the country has decided to take a stand and put a stop to it now.

That is why, the Sustainable City, the first fully operational sustainable community in the Middle East and Dubai’s first net-zero energy development, is on schedule to eliminate single-use plastics such as plastic bags, straws, water bottles, and food wrappers. Diamond Developers, a developer of sustainable communities, has announced plans to reduce single-use plastic use by 90% in the community. At the moment, single-use plastics are already prohibited in certain areas of The Sustainable City, such as the Diamond Developers offices and the Visitor Center. The plan’s first stage is to reduce use by half in the next three months.

As part of its commitment to sustainability, the city-state of Dubai announced on 7th February 2022, that a tax would be collected on plastic bags in Dubai, with the goal of abolishing them totally in two years. Dubai Media Office released a statement saying a 25 fil (6 cents) tax will begin on July 1.

“Sustainability has now become an imperative at the global level, reinforced by changing the behaviors of society in a way that reduces the environmental footprint of individuals,” the government said.

The skyscraper-studded city’s grocery stores already encourage shoppers to bring reusable bags.

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