On Friday, the UAE joined the world in its celebration of Earth Day, which falls on April 22 of each year.
Earth Day is an occasion to stimulate international efforts to confront the challenges of climate change that the world is witnessing and its negative consequences represented in the threat to biodiversity, air and ocean pollution, rising temperatures, floods and other manifestations.
Global concern is growing about the consequences of biodiversity loss. According to United Nations estimates, the world loses about 4.7 million hectares of forests annually, while the number of animal and plant species currently threatened with extinction is estimated at one million.
The Earth’s temperature continues to rise, as the past three years were the warmest on record, and the concentrations of major greenhouse gases continue to increase, while the oceans suffer from the phenomenon of acidification and deoxygenation, which greatly affects marine life, especially fisheries.
The occasion comes this year, and the UAE has succeeded in transforming into a knowledge platform capable of containing everything related to the climate change file of knowledge, data and strategies, which has qualified it during the past few years to impose its position as a prominent player at the regional and global levels in managing and addressing this sensitive file.
The UAE’s announcement of the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 was the culmination of the country’s efforts and its march in working towards climate at the local and global levels during the past three decades since its accession to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1995.
The initiative will provide new opportunities for sustainable development and economic progress, as well as contribute to consolidating the country’s position as an ideal destination for living, working and creating prosperous societies, as the UAE will invest more than 600 billion dirhams in clean and renewable energy until 2050, and will play its global role in combating climate change.
On November 11, the UAE won the world’s confidence to host the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 28), which will be held in 2023, in a move that reflects global appreciation for its efforts in climate sustainability.
The UAE obtained a large majority of the votes of countries that gave confidence in organizing a distinguished session that contributes to the world’s adoption of an economic orientation that supports climate action, and motivates the international community for more cooperation and acceleration of efforts to confront the challenge of climate change.
In 2021, the UAE revealed a set of practical initiatives to meet the challenge of climate change at the global level, including the announcement of a roadmap to achieve leadership in the field of hydrogen, which identified three main goals, represented in opening new sources to create value by exporting low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives and products to regions Major imports, and the promotion of opportunities for new hydrogen derivatives with low carbon steel and sustainable kerosene, in addition to other priority industries that contribute to achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
The UAE launched the “Agri-Climate Innovation Initiative”, a major global initiative led by the UAE and the United States of America, with the participation of 30 countries. The initiative, whose initial commitments amount to $4 billion, aims to accelerate work on developing climate-smart food and agricultural systems over the next five years. The UAE has pledged an additional $1 billion in investment as part of this initiative.
The UAE continues to mobilize global efforts to confront the challenges of climate change by hosting major events and events that formed an umbrella platform for senior officials, decision-makers and experts from around the world, as the regional climate change dialogue hosted by the UAE last April enhanced the level of cooperation and coordination of the response of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa for Climate Change, while Expo 2020 Dubai organized dozens of events, meetings and seminars that focused mainly on the topic of climate and biodiversity.
The UAE annually hosts the activities of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the Climate Forum at the World Government Summit, the World Green Economy Summit, and the annual exhibition for water technology, environment and energy “WETEX”, in addition to hosting the permanent headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency “IRENA”.