United Arab Emirates this week unveiled an agenda to combat climate change focused on the development of hydrogen alternatives

Emirates bets on hydrogen to combat climate change

photo_camera Emiratos apuesta por el hidrógeno para combatir el cambio climático

The United Arab Emirates, OPEC's third largest producer of crude oil, unveiled this week an ambitious program to combat climate change, focusing on the development of alternatives to hydrogen, but also on the desire to become a major exporter of this chemical.  

"With our infrastructure and large carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCSU) capabilities, we believe that we can be one of the cheapest and largest producers of blue hydrogen in the world," Sultan al Jaber, the Emirati Minister of Industry and Advanced Technologies, said Tuesday.  

Speaking at this week's Sustainability Week summit, Al Jaber, also managing director of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), said his company is also "exploring the feasibility of markets in Asia and Europe," as it already produces around 300,000 tons of hydrogen per year. 

Reducing emissions without reducing carbon  

According to the minister, the emirate's geology allows the country to extract "one of the least carbon-intensive hydrocarbons in the world," although he said there was "no credible way" to meet emission reduction targets without carbon capture and storage. 

The small Persian Gulf emirate has set a target of reducing its emissions by 23.5 percent by 2030, and in recent years the authorities have invested in various technologies to diversify its economy and reduce the carbon footprint of the energy production process.  

One example is the memorandum signed last Sunday between ADNOC, the sovereign fund Mubadala and Abu Dhabi's ADQ holding company to make the Emirati capital the main exporter of blue hydrogen (from natural gas) and green hydrogen (produced from renewable energy sources). 

HOTO/REUTERS - The flag flies over a ship at the marina in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 
The desert bets on renewable energies  

Less than an hour's drive from the capital is one of the world's largest solar parks: Noor Abu Dhabi, a 3.2 million solar panel installation that began operation in 2019.

The solar park is expected to produce enough energy daily to meet the needs of about 90,000 families in the emirate.

For its part, Abu Dhabi's energy ministry, for its part, launched an initiative to produce energy from waste in the capital on Wednesday, as part of the 11th annual meeting of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) being held this week in the emirate. 

Similarly, the emirate of Dubai has developed its sustainable strategy for 2050 with the aim of producing 75% of the city's energy from renewable sources by that year. 

One of the main projects is the Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park, with a planned capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030, using photovoltaic and concentrated solar technologies. 

On Tuesday, the general manager of the Dubai Water and Electricity Authority, Saeed Mohamed al Tayer, said that the city's "clean energy" rate had increased by 9 percent in 2020, while carbon emissions had decreased by 22 percent in 2019, 6 percent more than the target set for 2021. 

However, the Emirati Environment Minister, Abdullah Belhaif al Nuaimi, said in his opening speech to the Irena assembly that the country still has "a lot of work to do to achieve the desired level of global energy transition that can help effectively address the challenge of climate change". 

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