Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri

UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment

Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed

Almheiri is the Minister of Climate Change and Environment for the UAE. In this capacity, she leads the Ministry’s mission of spearheading the UAE’s drive to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, protect the country’s ecosystems and enhance its food and water security through developing and implementing effective measures, policies and initiatives.

Previously, Her Excellency was Minister of State for Food and Water Security, where her responsibilities included monitoring national food stocks and water supplies, channelling investments in food and water technology innovation and building international partnerships in this area. Prior to this, Her Excellency held the post of Minister of State for Food Security, where she oversaw the development of the necessary infrastructure to achieve the country’s food security objectives in line with the UAE Centennial 2071.

Her Excellency recently told SME how she and her Ministry were developing sustainable initiatives: “At the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE), we believe in multilateralism as a powerful vehicle for creating the sustainable future we want our children to live in. To advance collective action, we are keen on building regional synergies to align our response to climate change. We are also contributing to positioning the UAE as a premier convenor of regional climate action events, such as the first-ever MENA Climate Week, that aim to boost the momentum of climate action and support a new low-carbon development path in the region. Moreover, the role of youth is crucial in driving climate action and achieving sustainability. We collaborate with the Arab Youth Council for Climate Change (AYCCC) to empower young people from the region to become sustainability stewards and make sure their voices are heard by decision-makers.

“With two COPs in two years in the Middle East, climate action is at the top of our agenda, and we stand ready to join forces with all countries from this region to put us on track for a sustainable future.”

While the UAE has made great strides in this space in recent times, many challenges lie ahead. On this, Her Excellency added: “In tackling environmental challenges, the public’s level of awareness is our main challenge. Low awareness of environmental concerns and the lack of understanding of what each and every one of us needs to do to protect our fragile environment leads to unsustainable behaviours that undermine our efforts.

Our success in creating a sustainable future largely depends on taking a whole-of-society approach. We all have an integral role to play, from responsible use of food, water, and energy, planting trees, to implementing the three R’s – reduce, reuse, and recycle. These might all seem simple, trivial steps. But when taken collectively, they can bring about the powerful change we need to achieve our goal of building a better future for the current and next generations.”

With regard to how she and the Ministry are meeting these challenges, Her Excellency said: “At MOCCAE, we are keen to raise public awareness and make environmental sustainability everyone’s business. In this context, we roll out initiatives that educate the public on ways to contribute to environmental sustainability and drive meaningful public engagement, such as tree and coral planting drives, ecotourism campaigns, and beach and desert clean-ups.

“We also work closely with target sectors to step up their participation in the government’s environmental agenda, particularly the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative. We launched two initiatives that support this objective. The first is the National Dialogue for Climate Ambition, a monthly assembly dedicated to a different sector every month to help us design our net-zero pathway, outline ways to hit our targets, and create an enabling ecosystem for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The second is the Dynamics of Circularity Series that aims to share knowledge, build capacities, and explore opportunities to implement circular economy practices across carbon-intensive sectors.”