H.E. Eng. Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei

Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, United Arab Emirates

HOW ARE YOU CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR THE REGION?

With regards to sustainability, for the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, we have a holistic approach. The dynamics of the country’s development and the Ministry’s broad responsibilities made it inevitable to be innovative in designing a sustainable future. On the national level, the Ministry leads the sustainable development of the UAE, ensuring that the national targets for the energy, transport, and infrastructure sectors are integrated, aligned, and answering the socio-economic needs with the minimum environmental impact. We follow our leaders’ pace and ambitions by keeping the people’s well-being and happiness and the country’s prosperous economy at the heart of the future design.

The Ministry’s role is not limited to the national level, as we recognize the importance of sharing success to inspire neighboring countries. Even though UAE is in the top ten global oil producers, we have taken many serious steps to fight climate change and mitigate emissions. In 2021, UAE announced its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, making the Emirates the first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) nation to do so. Accordingly, UAE took the lead in developing a regional roadmap for the 22 Arab Countries targeting achieving a zero-emission, efficient, resilient buildings, and construction sector by 2050.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU FACE?

We in the UAE are lucky to receive unlimited support from our leaders to keep up with the rapid global changes and build agile and sustainable structures. Today UAE ranks among the top ten countries in 432 global indicators, and here is where we have challenges. First, it is to keep progressing in our sustainable development agility and readiness for the future, and not only to keep our top-ranked positions but even improve them to make the UAE the best country in the world. The second one is to protect the country’s growth and development despite the various global issues and challenges.

HOW ARE YOU OVERCOMING SAID CHALLENGES?

We invest in our people. Our first and ultimate goal is to build a competent future generation. We empower all the society segments: Especially the youth who would lead the future and guard their country’s valuable legacy. Also women who play a vital role in achieving a sustainable tomorrow and the elderly who possess essential knowledge and experience that is transferred to the new generations. We also equip our people with the right tools that enable them to innovate and support the country’s economic growth and sustainable development. On the other hand, our country’s development and growth are grounded in a strong foundation allowing us to overcome the global challenges surrounding us and impacting even the strongest economies worldwide. For example, we had the vision to diversify the energy share mix, with a target to achieve 50% of clean energy, where 6% of the share is from nuclear power, and the rest is from renewable energy. Our energy strategy strengthens the country’s energy security and paves the way for a sustainable future.