UAE SUPPORTS CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

Tackling climate change and addressing world challenges will become one of the key priorities in a collaborative venture between the UAE and the UN, following a meeting held in Poland’s capital Warsaw recently.

During the Conference of Parties (COP) 19 meeting on climate change, the UAE Minister of State, Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Sultan Al Jaber, actively participated in the meet and met with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, where they discussed ways of strengthening relations in a bid to tackle ongoing and pressing world challenges.

Dr Al Jaber reinforced the UAE’s commitment to effectively address climate change and talked in depth about the future of international climate policy with Ki-moon.

A delegation from the United Arab Emirates, and Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change, accompanied Dr Al Jaber to the Polish capital, to participate in the meet.

During an address by Dr Al Jaber in the COP Plenary’s High Level session, the UAE’s ongoing progress and achievements towards climate change mitigation was brought to the fore. He also stressed the importance of an effective international response.   “The UAE is committed to addressing climate change from an economic, social and environmental point of view,” he said.

“Our growing experience includes implementing commercial clean energy projects, making investments into clean technologies, and also expanding our development assistance by making clean energy accessible to all.”

In recent years, the UAE has rapidly emerged as a leading investor in clean energy technologies and in 2013 the UAE successfully inaugurated a number of projects including: Shams 1 — the 100MW solar plant in Abu Dhabi; the 13MW solar plant in Dubai; and the 630MW London Array offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom.

The first in a process to develop a new legally binding climate agreement by 2015, COP19 is part of this year’s annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).