The UAE Will Benefit From Its Global Leadership In The Clean And Renewable Energy Sector, as per Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD&CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), in a SOLAR QUARTER article reproduced below.
A file photo of HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD&CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)
The presence of the Middle East and North Africa region on the global sustainability agenda continues to grow. The region is witnessing significant momentum in accelerating climate action and strengthening bridges of international cooperation to mitigate the repercussions of climate change. This can be seen from the hosting of the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) in November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and preparations of the UAE to host COP 28 in Dubai Expo City in November 2023, which will accelerate the pace of climate action to combat climate change and global warming. Choosing the two countries to host COP 27 and COP 28 marks the beginning of a series of regional events that will last for 18 months, placing the Arab world at the centre of global activities in mitigating climate change.
The two conferences highlight the region’s role in the sustainability agenda by adopting effective strategies to adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects. The two conferences are also of particular importance for supporting climate financing for developing countries and supporting energy transition sustainably and equitably for all relevant parties, consolidating constructive partnerships between the public and private sectors. They also enable bridging the gap between ̒the South and the North ̓ and between the developing and developed countries. This helps to find innovative green solutions to the challenges posed by climate change, ensuring long-term economic and social benefits for the region and the world and achieving a more sustainable future for all.
COP27 has provided many meaningful opportunities for the UAE’s investments, making COP28 essential for expanding economic growth and prosperity with lowered emissions. The UAE will also benefit from its track record in reducing emissions, its global leadership in the clean and renewable energy sector, as well as its good relations, that consolidate the bonds of communication and dialogue; and mobilize efforts to transform climate action into opportunities for economic development and diversification. Moreover, it aims to support the implementation of the outputs of the previous COPs to achieve the Paris Agreement and raise awareness in society on their role that can bring about a positive effect in reducing their carbon footprint. This aligns with the wise leadership’s vision to make COP28 the most successful global environmental conference.
COP28 is also an important platform to highlight the UAE’s journey toward achieving comprehensive sustainable development, the foundations of which were laid by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. This is turn, is supported by the wise directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE; and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to ensure a balance between economic growth and the sustainability of natural and environmental resources. This journey has resulted in the country assuming a leading global position in diversifying energy sources, through massive clean energy projects, the largest and most efficient solar power plants, in addition to being the first country in the region to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes to generate electric power. Oil and gas in the UAE are also among the least carbon-intensive in the world. The UAE is the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement and to announce a strategic initiative to achieve Net Zero by 2050. The UAE also hosts the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The UAE has invested more than US$50 billion in clean energy projects in 70 countries including 40 developing nations and recently announced the UAE-US Partnership to Accelerate the Transition to Clean Energy (PACE). The project will catalyze US$100 billion in financing, investment, and other support and will deploy 100 gigawatts of clean energy globally.
To further spearhead the transition towards a green economy, the UAE Cabinet, Chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, approved the UAE to join the Global Alliance for Green Economy, announced by the World Green Economy Organization (WGEO) during the World Green Economy Summit 2022. The Alliance will play a pivotal role in promoting climate action, food security, and climate resilient development. WGEO called for supporting this global alliance to accelerate the transition towards a green economy, achieve the goals of sustainable development, and the implementation of the Paris Agreement by harnessing financing, technology, capacity building, and other factors that contribute to enabling a green economy.
In Dubai, we have developed major projects and strategic initiatives implemented by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) to achieve the goals of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050 to provide 100% of Dubai’s total production capacity from clean energy sources by 2050. Among the most prominent of these projects is the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the world’s largest single-site solar park using the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model, with a production capacity of 5,000 megawatts by 2030. DEWA is also implementing several leading projects to diversify clean energy sources. These include multiple clean and renewable energy sources and technologies such as PV panels, CSP, and green hydrogen production using solar power, which is the first of its kind in the MENA region to produce hydrogen using solar energy. DEWA is also working on pumped-storage water technology using clean energy in Hatta, the first of its kind in the GCC region. DEWA has also implemented several projects to increase energy efficiency.
Furthermore, in 2022, the first-ever MENA Week was hosted by the UAE Government, represented by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE), the World Green Economy Organization (WGEO), and DEWA, in collaboration with the UNFCCC, which accelerated the momentum towards COP 27.
In the UAE, we do not rest on our laurels. We continue our relentless efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and support the transition to a green economy. We look forward to COP28 in the UAE to make a tangible impact on climate neutrality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, consolidate our positive contribution to climate change, transform challenges into opportunities, and anticipate and shape a brighter future for all humans.
ESI Africa informs that Energy partners collaborate on renewable energy projects in the MENA region. Let us see how elaborate collaboration is in this context.
Middle Eastern energy partner NewMed Energy has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Enlight Energy regarding exclusive collaboration for a fixed term on the initiation, development, financing, construction and operation of renewable energy projects in the Middle East and North Africa.
The collaboration entails the development of solar projects, wind projects, energy storage and other relevant renewable energy segments in several target countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
As part of the Joint Venture, NewMed will utilise its business connections in the aforementioned target countries, with active involvement from Yossi Abu, CEO of NewMed Energy Management Limited. The Enlight Corporation will provide the joint operations with professional design, development and management services in the interest of promoting the Joint Venture.
In view of the MOU, NewMed intends to convene a general meeting which will include on the agenda a proposed resolution that will allow it to act and make investments in renewable energy projects in an aggregate investment amount of $100 million.
Control during the projects’ construction and operation stages will be held by Enlight. The MOU stipulates provisions with respect to the parties’ rights to appoint board members of the Co-Owned Corporations based on their holding rates and it also stipulates that Abu will serve as Chairman of the Board of the Co-Owned Corporations in the first 24 months.
Under the MOU, it has been agreed that resolutions of the Co-Owned Corporations will be adopted by a majority vote, subject to certain minority interest protections to be granted to NewMed. Provisions have also been specified with respect to the manner of financing of the operations of the Joint Venture and the investments in projects to be made thereunder, based on the relative share of each of the parties.
The term of the parties’ exclusive collaboration will be 3 years as of the date of signing of the detailed agreement. This may, under certain circumstances, be extended up to a term of five years as of the date of signing of the detailed agreement. Following the expiration of the Term of Exclusivity, the collaboration will continue with respect to projects that shall have commenced prior to the expiration date.
The African Energy Commission says expanded access to new, people-centred renewable energy systems will “lift hundreds of millions of people” out of poverty. KRISS75/Shutterstock
UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 aspires to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. But in Africa, around 600 million people continue to live without access to electricity. Seeking to reach as many of these people as quickly as possible, African governments are signing agreements with foreign firms to deliver off-grid solar products to millions of households.
British firm Bboxx, for example, has an agreement with the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to deliver solar home systems (SHSs) to 10 million citizens by 2024. SHSs consist of one or more panels, usually installed on household roofs, capable of providing up to 300 watts of power. This is sufficient to power laptops, televisions, LED lights, and – in certain models – refrigerators and cooking.
Underpinning this process is the belief that expanded access to off-grid solar can drive economic development by strengthening household income. According to the African Energy Commission, the process will “lift hundreds of millions of people” out of poverty.
Do these claims stand up to interrogation?
Increased income, increased risk
In a recent study, Patrick Lehmann-Grube, an independent researcher, and I reviewed 56 papers that focused on how access to off-grid solar energy impacts household income in Africa. Initially, the available evidence appears to provide strong support, with almost all the papers finding a positive effect.
This was largely based on the finding that SHSs enabled local stalls and kiosks to stay open longer by operating beyond nightfall. The testimony of a Kenyan fruit and vegetable seller is typical. After the addition of a SHS, she reported being able to add “two more hours of trading each day”. Across the studies, additional work hours allowed household income to increase by around US$20–£40 (£17-£33) per month.
Workers’ greater capacity for self-exploitation
Existing studies generally cite working longer hours as a marker of economic progress. Yet this finding is ambiguous since increased income here is achieved through a greater capacity for self-exploitation. Given the physical limits to the length of a working day, these observed increases can only lead to a limited economic gain.
For economic development to be strengthened and sustained, it must be incorporated into a process of increased productivity. This should be achieved by an increasing output per unit of labour time – not simply via people working longer hours or more people working – and supported by an accumulation of capital.
Existing studies tend not to focus on these dimensions, leaving the true economically transformative nature of off-grid solar products unclear. The low energy capacity of SHSs should, nonetheless, caution against any great enthusiasm that they can generate such transformative economic progress.
Short-term gains, long-term losses?
The shift of energy provision via SHSs away from centralised public governance and towards a privatised model has in many instances also shifted the financial burden of maintenance onto local communities. Several studies noted that the maintenance costs for off-grid solar products often surpass what rural households and communities can afford.
Yet most studies focus on the short-term impact, usually within a couple of years of a household or firm gaining access to off-grid solar. Short-term income gains will prove fruitless in the future, however, should communities be unable to assure maintenance of the equipment.
Several studies also documented the recent introduction of a pay-as-you-go model. The model aims to extend low-wattage solar products to income-poor rural African households, who are often unable to afford the full upfront cost. Already, pay-as-you-go solar firms are beginning to push a range of other products to their clients, such as irrigation pumps and appliance leasing.
This strikes a further note of concern, as studies on financial technology (or fin-tech) services have demonstrated their frequent association with rising indebtedness. Indebtedness constrains rather than liberates households, a process hardly conducive to economic development.
Can off-grid solar still drive economic development?
One solution to the limited economic impact of increased access to SHSs would be to focus on the provision of mini grids. Capable of powering entire rural communities or urban suburbs, research demonstrates that they support a far larger range of activities, extending into productive and industrial use.
Another avenue will be through developing domestic capacity in the design and manufacture of off-grid solar power. This carries the potential to generate productive employment and help stimulate a shift towards industrial development.
Here, Kenya has been a frontrunner through the selective use of strategic industrial policy. Many other countries, such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda, are looking to follow suit.
Existing studies have proved adept at identifying households who appear to have financially benefited from access to off-grid solar through increased income. But they have been less well attuned to the downsides.
Alongside rising indebtedness, these include the more general processes of polarisation, marginalisation and exclusion that inevitably accompany any process of capitalist economic development.
If, as Brazilian economist Celso Furtado once wrote, capitalist development is “a process of reshaping social relations founded on accumulation”, future research would do well to focus on how social relations are being reshaped by off-grid solar expansion – and with what consequences.
The supposedly ongoing Energy Transition would most probably be jeopardised in the developing countries as demand for all fossil fuels is projected to grow by two-thirds by 2050. The reasons are that the electric vehicle revolution would have difficulty reaching, let alone solving the climate crisis and creating opportunities for developing countries.
Achieving an equitable energy transition would fail short unless the interests of developed and developing countries are better aligned.
Can the electric vehicle revolution solve the climate crisis and create opportunities for developing countries?
Electric vehicles (EVs) are confidently expected to decarbonize road transportation, contribute substantially to the net zero agenda, and so help to solve the climate crisis. But as Ben Jones points out in a recent WIDER Working Paper, a rapid growth of global supplies of minerals and rare metals is a prerequisite. This in turn opens new prospects for mineral-abundant countries, many of which are less developed economies.
Tony Addison, former Chief Economist of UNU-WIDER, and myself explored these prospects in a series of high-level UN Roundtables over the course of 2021 — an opportunity to communicate our ideas to many critical stakeholders in all continents. Here, and in a related blog, I lay out the opportunities, and risks, that took centre stage during these discussions.
Barriers and risks
It is increasingly assumed that EVs are the future of transportation. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that there were some 16.5 million EVs on the world’s roads by 2022. That number is projected to increase seven-fold, by 2040. Annual global sales could rise from 2.5 million to over 30 million by 2030.
But, there are doubters and their doubts do have some substance.
There are several complicating factors that can compromise the promise that EVs are said to offer. These risks should be considered carefully before any country — and particularly any developing country — puts too much skin in the game.
First, there are the high costs of installing sufficient accessible charging points, especially in countries with low levels of electricity access (access levels below 40% are quite common). Second, there are question marks about battery longevity and the costs and technical challenges of both replacements and recycling. Third, the engineering complexities and the task of upskilling mechanics trained on conventional internal-combustion engines (ICEs) need to be considered. Fourth, the greater weight of EVs caused by their heavyweight batteries is a particular concern for low-income countries that already struggle to maintain road infrastructure.
And finally, charging EVs with largely coal-fired power — which would especially be the case in the most populous countries of India and China — will not much reduce carbon emissions.
Opportunities
These risks notwithstanding, there are opportunities for several developing economies to benefit from the EV revolution, but mainly as providers of critical mineral inputs into EV manufacturing, rather than as consumers and users of EVs.
Indeed, a substantial share of today’s global reserves of the key metals needed in quantity for the transition to clean energy are located in lower-income countries. Examples include 68% of lithium, 47% of manganese, 34% of nickel, 40% of platinum, 70% of titanium, 41% of zinc, 46% of copper, and 68% of cobalt.
A recent WIDER Working Paper by Ericsson and Löf ranks 40 lower-income countries that have some potential to take advantage of their endowments of these and other metals. The deeper analysis of this potential in their study is suggested reading for anyone who wants to learn more.
However, the realization of the alleged potential of EVs for developing counties will be far from plain sailing. Here are some of the risks for developing countries hoping to take advantage:
To make EVs renewable, they need to be charged using renewable energy. It is not clear that the additional renewable energy needed will keep pace with demand for EVs, and this will strain global critical metal supplies even further.
Environmental lobbies and governments might well go cold on EVs, as they did previously on diesel vehicles. The overall carbon-reducing credentials of EVs are already under question because of the substantial emissions and other environmental harm associated with the mining and processing of their metallic inputs.
Some of the countries most richly endowed with critical metals are also well-known for unacceptable human rights practices in their mining sectors. The DRC is perhaps the leading example. It provides almost 70% of the global supply of cobalt — a critical battery metal — with an estimated 15–30% of this produced in small-scale artisanal mines that use child labour and environmentally disastrous methods. The discussions at the 2021 UN Roundtables revealed this to be a matter of universal concern.
Another word of caution for resource-endowed developing nations
It is a common political assumption that the mere presence of a critical mineral resource justifies large investments in downstream processing to enhance national value-added. But this can be a seriously misleading assumption. Experience confirms the inherent problems of building viable domestic processing: certainly no developing country can assume that a rich endowment of any critical mineral will lead inexorably to the eventual emergence of a commercially-sustainable industrial output based on those minerals. In a related blog, I probe more deeply into some of the challenges faced to develop such national value-added, using Bolivia’s efforts to capitalize on its extremely rich endowment of lithium as one example.
Strategies for harnessing the potential in developing countries
Many low- and middle-income countries that are already highly dependent on extractive resources have learned how difficult it is to cope with the inherent instability of the prices and the markets in which these resources are traded. The WIDER working paper by Ericsson and Löf referenced above confirms that a large sub-set of those countries have the potential to significantly increase their mining output to meet the new demands for the global energy transition. But, partly for the reasons articulated above, prospects for doing so face uncertainties which are probably even more acute than encountered in the past.
What strategies can help address such uncertainties?
Two modest suggestions can be offered. First, acting on good evidence is vital. High-quality data on mineral endowments is needed — not only their volumes, but also whether they are of marketable quality, commercially viable, and at what price? The geological record underpinning such data is merely the first part of this requirement. Further, all potential supplying countries need to be very well informed about global trends in both EV uptake and above all competing suppliers.
Second, it is important to develop a deep and regularly updated awareness of the market and its uncertainties, and use this to maintain a grounded macroeconomic forecast. This includes the need to be cautious about increasing tax rates on mining products when, in the short term, there are high prices and bullish forecasts of future demand. These are rapidly changing markets; today’s competitive positions can easily disappear.
Alan Roe is a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. He has written extensively in both books, academic journals and for other outlets including the first full-scale statistical analysis of flows of funds in the UK. His publications have also included early papers on interest rate policies in developing economies and on the particular problems of monetary management in Africa.
“Get an electric vehicle!” This might be the first idea that comes to mind when considering how to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from transportation at the community level. Fossil fuels are widely recognized as a significant source of emissions due to the large amount of CO2 they produce when burned, but what about the emissions associated with electric vehicles (EVs)?
Globally, people have shifted toward electric cars in an effort to “go green” and support the universal goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, and to limit global warming to no more than 1.5°C, as called for in the United Nations’ Paris Agreement. Additionally, the World Bank Group has advocated for the decarbonization of the energy and transport sectors by halting investments in upstream oil and gas (2019), and pledging to invest 50% of climate finance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in interventions that help to build resilience, guided by regional and country-specific demand.
In line with these goals, governments in the MENA region have been motivated to encourage their populations to purchase EVs instead of conventional ones that run on gasoline. The UAE, for instance, has launched a regulatory policy for EV charging infrastructure and established the “EV Green Charger Initiative,” a free network of charging stations across the country. As a result, the popularity of EVs in Dubai has risen over the last seven years, with the total number in operation increasing from just 71 to 5,107. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has seen similar growth and is currently ranked in the top 50 countries worldwide according to the AlixPartners Automotive Electrification index, indicating 36% growth in the sale of EVs.
If the increasing popularity and demand for EVs is driven by a consumer and state-level desire to reduce CO2 emissions, it’s important to understand that they store and consume electricity that was generated from other sources, including fossil fuels and natural gas.
The MENA region is actively working on an energy transition plan that shifts away from fossil fuels, oil, and natural gas, all of which still account for the majority of energy generation portfolios for countries across the region. For example, until 2020, renewable energy and low-carbon sources accounted for less than 1% of total energy generation in Saudi Arabia, meaning EVs in the country likely relied overwhelmingly on fossil fuel-generated electricity. This is also the case in Morocco, often regarded as the region’s climate leader, even though renewables account for just two-fifths of the nation’s electricity capacity. So, the question becomes: Are EVs really as “green” and as environmentally friendly as their reputation suggests?
Regional governments are undertaking extensive efforts to shift energy production toward environmentally cleaner technologies for the benefit of both the climate and public health, but how quickly is that initiative progressing? What is a realistic timeline for green and renewable technologies (e.g., wind and solar) to become the dominant source of energy generation? And in the meantime, how should the international community view their environmental credentials?
The “green” reputation of EVs seemingly disregards the environmental impact of producing them, especially the key component that enables them to store electricity: their batteries. These batteries are manufactured from various metals that must be mined. For instance, lithium-ion batteries (Li-ion), considered the top of the line for EVs and used by Tesla, require a number of metals besides lithium, such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, and copper.
The mining of these components comes with environmental concerns. In the long term, does the earth hold enough of these minerals and materials to support a full global shift to EVs? In the short term, the rapid increase in demand for batteries has created a new challenge of ensuring an adequate supply of natural resources. Some of these materials are already in short supply, due to supply chain issues associated with the global pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This creates an artificial shortage and gives rise to opportunistic price gouging, whereby car dealerships are selling EVs at double their list price while manufacturers are heavily reducing their production.
Putting the price and supply dynamics aside, manufacturing these vehicles creates a tremendous environmental burden, as the process requires digging up and processing around 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust to produce one battery.
While there is a broad range of lithium extraction methods available, the primary ones —including hard-rock mining and extraction of lithium from brine water — require large amounts of energy. These processes disturb the natural water table, local biodiversity, and the ecosystem of nearby communities. For example, nickel mining and refining practices have already resulted in documented damage to freshwater and marine ecosystems in Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and New Caledonia.
Pollution from these operations not only impacts oceans and ecosystems but also induces environmental hazards throughout the battery lifecycle from mining materials for their production to disposing of old batteries at landfills, creating health risks for workers and affecting nearby communities due to the toxicity of heavy metals such as lithium.
Taking these issues into consideration, just how much do EVs really limit overall emissions? And are they a path to net-zero emissions for the MENA region? Considering the environmental costs of EV production and usage, it might be more prudent for regional governments to first prioritize and achieve sustainable energy transitions before fully advocating for the use of EVs.
Athra Khamis is a Non-Resident Scholar with the Climate and Water Program at the Middle East Institute. Her areas of expertise include climate change scenarios, atmospheric composition, water resource analysis, environmental ecosystems, and sustainability.
The above featured image is a Photo by Tom Dulat/Getty Images
MEI is an independent, non-partisan, non-for-profit, educational organization. It does not engage in advocacy and its scholars’ opinions are their own. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains sole editorial control over its work and its publications reflect only the authors’ views. For a listing of MEI donors, please click here.
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