Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, built around the 7th World Future Energy Summit and the 2nd International Water Summit, ended today having received an estimated 30,000 attendees from 172 countries.
“Neither our water nor our energy can be considered cheap anymore,” said HE Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, Director of Energy and Climate Change at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the First Permanent Representative of the UAE to IRENA.
Organisers believe that the Gulf states can use their prosperity as an opportunity to be trail blazers in the renewable energies and sustainable development sectors.
“The link [in the Gulf region] between water and energy is very strong,” added Dr Mahmoud Dawoud, Water Resources Advisor at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), noting that 30-40% of energy consumption in the GCC was for water production.
To tackle this problem, the emirate of Abu Dhabi was exploring the potential of solar-powered water desalination and projects to reclaim waste water, he said.
Despite their reliance on fossil fuels, the Gulf states had the resources and the institutions to address sustainability challenges, Smith argued, while the accelerated adoption of renewable energies was one avenue to address the region’s youth unemployment.
