Environment

Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week Opens to Rousing Welcome

The Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week is a week-long event that seeks to bring together young minds in transforming the global energy outlook. With measures like the world’s biggest reserve of high quality desalinated water at Liva desert, the event is expected to showcase the best of innovations that will fire up the next wave of sustainable development The event aligns with 7.7% GDP growth achieved by Abu Dhabi to AED196 billion in the 4^th quarter and an annual GDP of AED850 billion in 2017.      

The Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week that started on Jan 13, 2018 has been attracting scores of innovative and radical industry leaders in sectors like environment and sustainable energy. Under the patronage of HRH Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the event will be defined by a week-long lineup of seminars, presentations, exhibitions, and conferences. Some of the noteworthy events include

• The International Water Summit
• The Zayed Future Energy Prize Award Ceremony
• The International Renewable Energy Agency meeting, and
• Ecowaste

Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week – Key Highlights

The highlight of the event is the prominent win by 3 researchers who were awarded a grant of AED 18.4 million ($5million). This is one of the measures undertaken at the ADSW to enable better participation in measures like water conservation and rainwater harvesting. The event is also looking at ways to counter the impact of climate change, urbanization, and digitization. Its popularity can be determined by the number of patriating countries that has risen from 84 in 2008 to 170 in 2016.

The 2017 event saw participation from 38,000 visitors and 639 exhibitors discuss a slew of sustainability-related issues like:

• Catastrophic issues around water, energy, and environment
• Enhance global adoption of renewable energy
• Attract investment in projects around water, energy, and environment
• Award fired up young minds in encouraging innovations in environmental preservation

The week-long event is expected to bring together policy makers, industry leaders, change makers, scientists, business leaders, and academicians to discuss ways to resolve the sustainable energy issues that will grip the world in the near future. With UAE’s economy expected to grow in the region of 4-5% in the 2017-2020 period, this drive towards sustainable development is expected to pick pace. Not only young innovators, but established companies from across the globe too will pitch in with multi-million dollar projects in water, energy, and environment.

Impact on Abu Dhabi Economy

Abu Dhabi was recently categorized with an AA/A-1+ rating by S&P Global Ratings. It marked the economy as ‘stable’, thus supporting the positive economic outlook of the nation. It is expected to witness an average GDP growth of 3.4% in the 2016-2020 period.

The Sustainability Week looks at new business models and innovative ventures as the UAE moves from oil based economy to diversify its resources and strengths and brings new business avenues to drive the nation’s move to focus on non-oil based sectors such as education, tourism, and healthcare. This has already started bearing results – Dubai is emerging as an education hub, has a healthcare industry worth AED55.09 billion ($15 billion) in 2016, while its tourism outlook too is robust with an annual tourist inflow of 14.2 million.

Emirates like Dubai are already doing their bit in utilizing new age energy generation measures. Steps like the world’s largest solar project at Dubai speak about the UAE’s commitment to move to modern day energy generation and environmental conservation measures. These steps will allow UAE to continue outpacing other GCC countries.

Research Konnection – Market Research, Feasibility Study & Business Plan Services Dubai (UAE) Research Konnection is a market research company in Dubai that assists local and international companies to setup or expand businesses in Dubai and UAE smoothly. At Research Konnection, we specialize in Market Research, Feasibility Studies and Business Plan Developments. Feel free to reach out to us on hello@researchkonnection.com