L to R: Mustafa Adil; Dr Yousef Ebrahim Al-Akraf; H.E. Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi; H.E. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer; Engineer Waleed Salman and Ahmad Bin Shafar

As Dubai gears up for the 2017 World Green Economy Summit (WGES), the UAE is making strides towards establishing a sustainable and low green economy, said H.E. Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment.

Dr Zeyoudi was speaking at a press conference  on October 19 in Dubai,  and was joined by H.E. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and MD & CEO of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Chairman of WGES, Dr Yousef Ebrahim Al-Akraf, Executive Vice President of Business Support & Human Resources at DEWA & Chairperson of Logistics Committee of WEGS, Engineer Waleed Salman Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at DEWA, Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (EMPOWER), and Mustafa Adil, Head of Islamic Finance at Thompson Reuters & Programme Director.

The fourth edition of the WGES will be held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and the theme will be ‘Driving innovation, Leading change’. The event is scheduled to take place from October 24 to 25 in Dubai.

Elaborating further on the upcoming summit, Dr Al Zeyoudi added: “Now, we have an advanced implementation mechanism for the strategy and national green agenda up to 2030, which through its national programmes and initiatives, represents a roadmap for the transformation process.

“This strategy has become a key pillar and an important tool in our future initiatives and strategies, in particular, the UAE National Climate Change Plan adopted by the cabinet last June.”

Dr Al Zeyoudi said that the summit would serve as an ideal platform for business leaders and policymakers in different sectors to organise their visions and ideas, and accelerate the transformation of the global economy into a sustainable and low carbon economy that would contribute to achieving sustainable development goals and combating poverty.

Sharing other details of the summit, Al Tayer said: “This year the summit will highlight three key pillars of the green economy, which include innovation and technology, leadership and policy, finance and investment. These pillars will integrate improvements in resource efficiency to create synergies across the social, economic and environmental pillars of sustainable development and contribute to design new green economy strategies and help achieve the global agenda of the green economy.”

Al Tayer further elaborated that the UAE is at the frontline to achieve the sustainable development goals that were outlined in the United Nations 2030 Agenda. He further added that other efforts have been consolidated to achieve the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 that aims to provide seven percent of Dubai’s energy from clean energy sources by 2020. This target is expected to increase to 25% by 2030, and to 75% by 2050.