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UAE to boost renewable energy capacity over next seven years - COP28

Economy Materials 29 March 2023 12:53 (UTC +04:00)
UAE to boost renewable energy capacity over next seven years - COP28
Maryana Ahmadova
Maryana Ahmadova
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 29. The UAE plans to increase its renewable energy portfolio four times over the next seven years, Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, COP28 President, said, addressing the second day of the 9th Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, Trend reports.

According to the president, this implies the growth of renewables deployed from the existing 25,000 MW to over 100 GW.

"The UAE and Germany have a shared vision for the future of renewable energy. Both our countries have embedded wind and solar into our energy mix. In Germany, renewable energy has grown 40 percent of power generation in 30 years. I want to extend an open invitation to our German partners, and all our global partners to work with us to deliver commercial renewable energy projects in every region in the world. That said, renewable energy won't deliver all the zero-carbon energy we need. There are more than 5,000 steel, cement, and aluminum manufacturing plants in the world today. And none of them can run on only wind or only solar alone. Along with heavy transportation, these hard-to-abate sectors make up over 30 percent of global emissions," he said.

As Al Jaber noted, a solution like hydrogen needs to be developed, and the UAE, together with Germany, have been working on it actively.

"While hydrogen has great potential, the hydrogen value chain is still very much at its infancy. So we need to turn to other proven commercialized technologies like carbon capture. The IPCC has been saying since 2016 that carbon capture is an essential enabler for curbing emissions, yet there are only 44 million tons per annum of worldwide carbon capture worldwide. I'm sure we all agree is nowhere near enough. We need to multiply that amount 30 times, but we also know that the main barrier here is cost. We need smart progressive government intervention through policies and regulation to attract and incentivize private sector investment. We need to explore emerging carbon capture technologies like direct air, mineralization, and osmosis," he noted.

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