On October 5th and 6th, Dubai will be hosting 3rd World Green Economy Summit (WEGS) 2016 in conjunction with Water, Energy Environmental Exhibition and Dubai Solar Show 2016. The Summit is hosted by DEWA under the umbrella of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, in collaboration with World Climate Ltd, international partners are supported by the United Nations
Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai; on 29th May H.E. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer hosted a press conference to announce the agenda and speakers for the third World Green Economy Summit.
Talking at the press conference, H.E. Saeed Al Tayar informed, WEGS 2016 is held under a new theme ‘Driving Global Green Economy’. WGES 2016 aims to support the UAE Vision 2021 and further the National Agenda to promote sustainable development. The Summit aims to support Dubai’s ambitions in the Green Economy sector and drive the Clean Energy Strategy 2050. Through this strategy Dubai aims to provide 7% of it’s energy demand from solar sources by 2020, 25% by 2030 and 75% from clean energy by 2050, and seeks to make Dubai the city with the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050 and a global center for clean energy and energy conservation.
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| H.E. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment |
At the press conference Mr. Frode Mauring, United Nations Resident Coordinator & United Nations Resident Development Programme Resident Representative in UAE said: “The summit demonstrates UAE’s willingness to exert leadership in innovative approaches to green economy developments building on its own pioneering efforts and vision”.
Watch this video of Mr. Adnan Amin, Director- General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) talking at the press conference
World Green Economy Summit 2016
In WGES 2016 number of distinguished speakers will be participating including Helen Clark, Administrator, UNDP; H.E. Mohamed Boussaid, Minister of Economy and Finance, Morocco; H.E. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change, Government of UAE; H.E. Reem Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for Int. Cooperation, MD Dubai Expo 2020; Ken Berlin, CEO, Climate Reality Project; Daniel CALLEJA CRESPO, Director-General, EU; H.E. Dr. Khaled Fahmy, Minister of Environment, Arab Republic of Egypt; Adnan Z. Amin, Director General, International Renewable Energy Agency; Gasem Al Shaikh, CEO, Petroleum, Chemicals & Mining Company Limited; and Torben Moger Pedersen, CEO, PensionDanmark.
The programmer will incorporate plenary sessions, breakout sessions and a wide selection of expert-led presentations, covering key topics including:
- Green Finance: How to mobilize sufficient global green capital
- Solar Energy: World energy game changers bringing about the solar revolution
- Smart, Happy & Green: Transforming cities through people and technology
- A road to COP22 in Marrakech: Bringing the Paris agreement into action from agreement to action
- Thought Leadership for the Green Economy: Making Initiatives out of targets for the green economy
- The Public-Private Partnership Platform: The unique green economy match-making mechanism
Upcoming sustainability announcements in UAE
During the question-answer session of a press conference I could ask a few questions and here is what I learned.
H.E. Al Zeyoudi answered UAE is taking steps to make sure to reach fulfill INDCs revealed during Paris Agreement.
When asked about the probability of solar cooling implementation in UAE, he answered in UAE Solar PV and CSP are the only renewable technologies are in use. UAE government always encourage the private sector to bring new technologies and this is one of the goals of WEGS to bring sustainability technologies to the region and invite the private sector to participate in the summit as well.
When asked if Dubai is planning to have desalination of water plants powered by renewable energy resources. H.E. Al Tayar informed about DEWA’s research and development project; a desalination facility, RO plant powered by solar power, which can produce 13,000 gallons/day is under commissioning stage and soon to be announced.
Dubai is also planning to launch a free-zone dedicated to green or sustainable businesses. Watch H.E. Saeed Al Tayar answering Sustainability Tribe’s question at the press conference.
Click here to watch the video of a full session of question answer at the press conference including the questions asked by Sustainability Tribe.
2 Comments
Hi! Great article! Thanks for sharing such important issue! Would be also perfect if you can add the Twitter share button, so we can spread the word 😉
Thanks for reading the post Natalia! There is twitter sharing button at the end of article. But anyways I am working on re-branding the blog and hopefully all these technical issues will be resolved.
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