The UAE is a rapidly developing country that has experienced a long period of extraordinary economic growth. This has resulted in an increasing rate of consumption of natural resources such as energy, food, fiber, and timber accessed from within and outside the country’s borders. Because of the hot and arid conditions of the UAE, a significant amount of energy is consumed for space cooling and seawater desalination. These dynamics, when combined with inefficient consumption of natural resources, have resulted in a high per capita Ecological Footprint (EF) since 2006. The UAE has the third highest footprint per capita in the world, measuring 8.4 gha/person, trailing Qatar (11.7 gha/person) and Kuwait (9.7 gha/person), according to the 2012 Living Planet Report.
Approximately 71% of the UAE’s EF is due to the consumption of carbon-intensive goods and services, in particular energy. Because the UAE relies almost completely on natural gas to generate electricity and desalinated water, energy and water security is always a concern, as demand is outstripping supply. Energy demand more than doubles in the summer mainly due to the need for space cooling, leading to gas shortages. To meet the peak demand for power in the summer time, the UAE burns crude oil and diesel fuel to generate electricity for local consumption at subsidized rates, which reduces the amount of oil exported and the potential revenue.
Thus, energy security, social and economic development, and the environment are now all recognized as key drivers to policy making in the UAE. This is manifested in the country’s Vision 2021, the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, the Abu Dhabi Environment 2030 plan, and the Green Economy Initiative. These different strategies seek to foster a green growth agenda to diversify and build a knowledge-based economy where sufficient skills, capacities, and jobs are developed to support growth in new green sectors, such as clean energy. In addition, the UAE is pursuing natural resource conservation to ensure that the country’s growth targets are achieved without neglecting environmental limits.
In 2007, the government took significant measures to address the UAE’s EF, making it the third country in the world to do so after Japan and Switzerland. Thus, the UAE Ecological Footprint Initiative (EFI) was born to utilize in-depth research to understand and manage the country’s EF and facilitate the development of science-based policies. A unique public, private, and civil society partnership was set up bringing together the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW), the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) represented by its subsidiary body the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI), the Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF (EWS-WWF), the Global Footprint Network (GFN), and the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA). A federal steering committee was set up including high-level stakeholders from the energy and water sectors to provide strategic guidance. By working together to understand the UAE’s natural resource consumption patterns, the EFI has prioritized actions seeking to catalyze change in both societal awareness and policy development.
In 2007-2008, the EFI completed the verification of the UAE EF data, concluding that it is an accurate estimate of the country’s consumption patterns. From 2008-09, key drivers of the EF were identified, indicating that UAE households are responsible for 57% of national consumption, followed by business/industry (30%) and government (12%). These findings have guided the development of a sustainable lifestyles campaign known as ‘Heroes of the UAE’4, which seeks to raise awareness about the EF and climate change, and what consumers can do to mitigate their effects.
As the EF is a retrospective indicator, there was a need to develop a science-based, policy relevant modeling tool. The goal is to predict the effectiveness of the strategies used to reduce the UAE’s EF and carbon emissions, particularly those generated by the energy and water sectors. The energy sector is targeted as a strategic priority because it contributes the most to the carbon footprint.
In 2009-2010, the EFI partnered with academic experts at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology to develop a science-based EF model that would act as a decision support tool. The EF model, which targets the electricity and water sectors, serves as an analytical tool for assessing the impact of policy options on the Emirate of Abu Dhabi’s carbon dioxide emissions and UAE’s overall EF up to the year 2030. Modeling results have indicated that by the year 2030, a portfolio of policy measures could help reduce CO2 emissions in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi by up to 40% and the UAE’s per capita EF by 1 gha/person. This would require more ambitious renewable energy targets, stronger building codes, and energy efficiency standards for appliances.
Building on this research, the EFI will continue to develop science-based policies to reduce the UAE’s carbon dioxide emissions and per capita EF over the next three years by adopting a 3-pronged approach:
Track 1 focuses on developing a policy demonstration cycle to institute a lighting standard for the household sector.
Track 2 focuses on conducting a socio-economic assessment of the policies outlined in the EF scenario model.
Track 3 focuses on improving the verification of the UAE’s EF in advance of the publication of each Living Planet Report, and communicating the results to policy makers. This will involve sourcing data from relevant authorities and building the capacity for knowledge creation and sharing.
Track 1 – Energy efficiency standards for lighting
Feedback from high level decision makers has highlighted the need to develop a policy demonstration cycle for energy efficiency standards to help reduce the UAE’s overall EF and act as a blueprint for future policy development. Energy efficiency standards are seen to have high carbon abatement potential at low costs.
Depending on location, lighting accounts for as much as 20% of the electricity consumed by the residential sector. Thus, emphasis is being placed on establishing energy-efficient lighting and associated policy measures. Lighting energy efficiency standards for the residential sector are particularly applicable to this region, since lighting is the largest electricity consumer in UAE households after cooling. Lighting also affects the cooling load because it generates waste heat. Because consumption by households accounts for approximately 57% of the UAE’s EF, the residential sector was established as a key target for improving energy efficiency and reducing the UAE’s EF.
ESMA will conduct research seeking to develop a science-based energy efficiency standard and a labeling system for lighting at the residential level for the UAE. Research will include an international best practice review, development of a comprehensive residential lighting assessment for the UAE, benchmarking of a UAE lighting standard based on its economic and technical potential, sustainability impact assessment, and the identification of a policy and regulatory framework for the lighting standard. This will be complemented by extensive stakeholder engagement throughout the process to secure data and political buy-in.
Track 2 - Socio-economic assessment of energy and water policies for the UAE
A consultation process was undertaken with different stakeholders in 2010 to obtain feedback on how relevant, credible, and robust the EF scenario modeling was. Feedback has indicated that the current EF scenario model could be made more significantly relevant to decision makers if capabilities are added to quantify the socio-economic implications of the different policy scenarios and to expand the model to a federal level, along with separate emirate level analysis.
The aim of this research track is to conduct a socio-economic assessment of the energy and water policy scenarios modeled in order to facilitate more effective policy design and prioritization. The socio-economic evaluation will measure the effects of policies on: GDP growth, economic diversification, green job creation, energy and water security, UAE’s competitiveness, UAE’s export revenues and investments in renewable energy.
To conclude, the knowledge gained from the EFI has benefited the country by creating opportunities for UAE government leaders and residents to increasingly promote more effective sustainable development behavior. Initiatives that actively advance sustainable development and facilitate partnerships between the public, private, and civil society sectors are essential to bring about the needed change in the UAE, the Arab region, and the world to make the transition towards a sustainable future.
Laila Abdullatif is Project Manager of the Ecological Footprint Initiative (EFI) and Tanzeed Alam is Policy Director at the Emirates Wildlife Society (EWS-WWF)